Nun Admits ‘things Not Right’ at Nazareth Homes for Children

By Mike Wade
The Times
June 15, 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nun-admits-things-not-right-at-order-s-homes-for-children-268t2pw3s

Lady Smith, head of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, prompted an admission from Sister Doolan that “it must have been very hard” for siblings, who were routinely separated in the Nazareth homes

An order of nuns has admitted abusing children in its four understaffed homes where youngsters survived on “frugal” rations of food and clothing.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard that 404 civil actions and complaints had been taken out against the Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth, which operated homes known as Nazareth House.

In total, 14,766 children were cared for in Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Glasgow and Edinburgh between 1930 and 1985, but none of the homes was staffed by more than ten sisters, and often only three or four nuns were in residence.

The congregation “didn’t have the finance to pay lay staff”, said Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the regional superior. While the aim was to care for children “as best we could”, she acknowledged…