What does Pope Francis say about nuns who abuse children? Nothing so far.

We all know what the priests have been doing to children – their evil deeds and the cover up of those deeds by the catholic church hierarchy make headline news every day.  But is that the whole story?  What about the catholic nuns?  Many of us remember the nuns in the catholic schools and homes for children and the memories are not happy.  What are the facts about the nuns?  Remember, there are many more nuns than priests and that equals a much greater opportunity for nuns to abuse children – and that is just what they did.

The nuns have been called “soldiers” of the pope by me (book: Smothered, 2012) and by others.  These nun ground troops have a long history of child abuse starting during the Inquisition in the eleventh century.  During Inquisitions the pope and his armies went on crusades to torture and kill those who did not agree with their beliefs

In the year 1231 pope gregory IX gave the job of carrying out inquisitions to the dominican order of nuns (and priests).  In 1252, pope innocent IV authorized the dominicans' use of torture and they never stopped using it. In 1578 the inquisitors’ handbook said that punishment wasn’t for the correction and good of the person being punished – it was for the public good so others “may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit.” The nuns learned the lesson and applied it to children.  They beat a child as an example to other children.

 Dwayne James Mitchell, a teacher and survivor of catholic school nun abuse who writes on the blog “Catholic Nuns, Child Abuse and Vows, made this comment about the nuns:

“Again the goal [of the church] was to get control of the individual at the earliest point in time so they would have them under control for the rest of their lives. ---- Along the way, they made it a point to instill “fear” within the young person about their soul, and that the Catholic Church was the only way to save their soul from damnation. ---- Everything along the way was orchestrated so as to get the individual under their complete control and in alignment with their agenda both in the “here and now” and in the future!”  So they started with the children – in catholic schools and in catholic homes or orphanages: physical, sexual and psychological abuse was their agenda.

Dwayne says that regarding abuse of children by nuns, “What we are seeing is just the "tip of the iceberg" and that “We need to uncover the "motivation" behind the actions of the nuns… Every order of nuns was following orders from someone.”  We can guess at that “someone.”  The pope is the head of the catholic church. He is, in fact, the king of the Vatican state. All of the orders for everything come from him, down to the cardinals and bishops and priests and finally to the nuns.  Dwayne knows and I know that there are many more survivors of nun and priest abuse. We ask that you share your stories with us. Were you abused by nuns in catholic schools or catholic homes?  Why do you think they treat children this way? The pope is welcome to voice his opinion.