CANADA
The Telegram
Barb Sweet
Published on June 07, 2016
It was the first time she had ever seen her father cry, a woman said of when her brothers were dropped off several decades ago at the former Newfoundland orphanage known as Mount Cashel.
Father Francis Puddister, a vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. John’s, was one of two witnesses who testified at the Mount Cashel civil trial Tuesday.
One of the woman’s brothers is a John Doe who says the Catholic Church should be held liable for abuse by certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers at the infamous orphanage during the 1940s to early 1960s.
The church contends it did not oversee the orphanage’s operations, and therefore is not responsible.
The John Doe — one of four test cases representing about 60 former orphanage residents who say they were physically and sexually abused by the Brothers — has already told the civil trial at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador that his once-promising career and marriage were ruined by the after-effects of the abuse, as his life spiralled downward due to alcoholism.
Like others, he’d described life at Mount Cashel as horrific.
The woman who testified Tuesday, however, described her time at the private Littledale girls’ boarding school in St. John’s run by Sisters of Mercy nuns as “wonderful.” She went on to join the convent and receive a post-secondary education before leaving the order in her middle age.
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