Alleged victims claim sexual abuse by nuns in Catholic Church is ‘secret not yet told’

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

January 2, 2019

By Kate Feldman

While the Catholic Church faces widespread allegations of sexual abuse within its ranks, victims say nuns around the country are guilty as well.

Several women told CBS News about allegations of misconduct by nuns, including molestation and forced kissing, in an epidemic that some have dubbed “pedophile nuns.”

Trish Cahill claims that a sister at her New Jersey convent would feed her drugs and alcohol, “grooming” her for sex at just 15 years old after confessing that her uncle sexually abused her.

“I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her,” Cahill told CBS News. “She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn’t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.”

In 1994, Cahill received a $70,000 settlement to “shut her up,” she said. But she’s not alone, she said, calling it “the secret not yet told.”

A former nun, Mary Dispenza, said at least 18 people have told her about sexual abuse at the hands of other nuns.

“A lot has to do with the culture of nuns which are, they are very, very private by nature,” she told CBS News.

Almost all of the focus has been on Catholic bishops as the Church reckons with sexual abuse scandals dating back decades.

In August, a report from a Pennsylvania grand jury found that hundreds of priests had abused at least 1,000 children over a 70-year span.

“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the report read.

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