Local view: Catholic nuns can ignore the past or fill the black void with light

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: LaVerne Wagner, Duluth News Tribune

I read the Dec. 18 column about the 100th anniversary of the St. Scholastica Order of the Benedictines. Certainly the Sisters’ work has provided all of us with better health care, education and countless social services. Surely, their work continues to do so.

I personally have worked with Catholic nuns throughout the United States on disasters; they lead efforts to assist those who can’t fend for themselves. Mother Teresa inspired many of us to work with sick and poor and to trust that God will protect us and our health.

I struggle, however, with the dark past the sisters both at St. Scholastica and all over the world have in the failing to protect children. Nuns for many years were charged with the education and safety of children attending Catholic schools. As we now know, tens of thousands of children both in the U.S. and abroad were abused, molested and raped while under the care of nuns. These are facts, not allegations. Nuns have said many times they were silenced by their bishops and told to look the other way. Some nuns say they did not have the power to stop abuse.

As a victim of this abuse, I can tell you I have really tried to understand that predicament.

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