Abuse spotlight switches to nuns

By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent

CANBERRA - The Catholic Church in Australia, already investigating allegations of child abuse by its most senior cleric, has been hammered with further claims of brutality and sexual abuse.

Former residents at a Brisbane orphanage run by the Sisters of Nazareth have made public allegations including rapes by priests and a nun using a flagstick, whippings with staple-studded belts, and the forced eating of faeces.

Although not admitting liability, the Church reached out-of-court settlements with some of the 17 women who lodged claims against the Order in the Brisbane Supreme Court three years ago.

The women were paid up to A$75,000 ($88,000), depending on the level of physical and sexual abuse, The Bulletin magazine said in a report of the allegations.

The claims, repeated on ABC Radio yesterday, follow a series of allegations of abuse by clergy and nuns - most recently charges that the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, sexually abused a 12-year-old boy in 1961.

The Church's National Committee for Professional Standards announced this week that the allegations against Pell will be heard in closed session, but that the findings may be made appropriate if the two co-chairmen deem it appropriate.

The claims against Pell and the nuns of Nazareth House have renewed demands for a national inquiry into abuse by the Church, and brought new condemnation of continued secrecy in dealing with allegations of abuse.

The Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn said the culture of secrecy was causing great harm to the Church, and Karen Walsh, co-ordinator of the Queensland victims' support group the Esther Centre, said the Church had a mandate to protect the weak.

"These principles are not just found in the legal process," she said.

The allegations reported by the Bulletin follow an exhaustive 1999 inquiry into the abuse of children at Queensland institutions, which found widespread physical, sexual and mental abuse by government and religious schools, homes and orphanages.

Nazareth House, which operated an orphanage from 1927 to 1982, was described by one child-care officer as "a cold, imposing place ... extremely frightening for a child".

The inquiry reported that Nazareth children lived in overcrowded, substandard dormitories, and fed on a diet so deficient that many ate clover and grass, and scavenged from rubbish bins.

One of the alleged victims, Lizzie Walsh, told ABC Radio she had been raped by a nun as a young girl in the 1950s.

"There was a flagstick, and the reason for it was to get the devil out of me," she said.

"After I'd been raped with the flagstick I was sitting on the floor in a pool of blood [and] a nun found me and she said 'What are you doing here?'

"She said to me 'Get up off the floor, clean yourself up and get back to the classroom with the other kids'."

Walsh said other nuns had ignored her being raped by two priests. She said she had also been forced to eat a nun's faeces, rotting fish and vomit, and to drink her own urine.

Another alleged victim, Bobbie Ford, reported regular brutal beatings.

"From the time I was seven we were stripped naked, thrown on the bed on our stomachs, and we'd be thrashed with a Machine strap with staples in them," she said.

"That was one of the punishments and we got that every night."

The head of the Order in Australia, Sister Clare Breen, refused on legal advice to discuss individual allegations, but expressed in a statement her sorrow at the claims.

"I'd like to say that the Sisters of Nazareth are saddened to know that some of the women who were in their care as children are carrying with them such unhappy memories."