Comments on: Scale of abuse in New Zealand Catholic Church revealed in research project: 1680 reports of abuse since 1950

By: Lilian Wilde

Lilian Wilde — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 22:24:17 +0000

I attended Addington Primary in Christchurch from 1958-1959 and received daily corporal punishment by Sister Mary Lucia when I was 12. She had taken over the form 2 class following disruptions by over-exuberant boys in our form 1 class the previous year. She had asked me to become a nun, and when I said no (I didnt believe I was worthy) she began using me to embarrass the naughty boys into submission. She did this by strapping me every time they were disruptive in class, obviously hoping to make them feel embarrassed or bad for my pain. Her strapping extended up my wrist and I had to pull my jersey over the welts as my mother would have sided with the “good nuns”. I still have my faith but am not a practising Catholic.

By: Editor

Editor — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 22:23:52 +0000

Thanks for your message, Garth. The Church takes allegations of abuse seriously. The National Office for Professional Standards can be contacted through 0800114622 or [email protected] You can also inform the Police about what happened. NZ Catholic.

By: Garth

Garth — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 04:46:55 +0000

My experience at St Paul’s college Grey Lynn was difficult as I was not an actual baptized Catholic but an Anglican, but as a boy of 11 years I didn’t know much of those things. Consequently, I believe I was subject to being significantly disadvantaged as a result. I also believe I had or have an undiagnosed disorder of As Burgeis syndrome, which also contributed to a feeling of alienation in all areas of growth be it sport or academia. So I don’t entirely blame the school how- ever they shouldn’t have allowed my attendance to such an institution of this nature to have resulted, so my actual parent have the blame as well. But an observation of how St Paul’s operated from 75 to 79 as a boarder there it was more a -kin to some sort of prison for boys. I received a fair bit of abuses from both the boys and the staff there. At one point I almost took one of those guys out my self with shear anger at the abuse and a sense of complete alienation. I still feel very angry today. A real bastard of a place I reckon I didn’t deserve that. Thanks for nothing you bastards.

By: Rosemary Scaturchio

Rosemary Scaturchio — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 05:05:47 +0000

I am so happy to see this article and know that finally New Zealand is doing something about the sexual, psychological and emotional damage caused by Nuns AND Priests in the ’50’s. I have lived in Australia for the bulk of my adult life and could never re-visit the Church or School where I attended primary school. Thank the Lord that my parents sent my sister and I to Baradene for our secondary years. The difference was chalk and cheese and I learnt not to be scared to go to school anymore. With this my bed wetting stopped and I began to take in what I was being taught. I began to enjoy school and felt happy and safe. However, the fear of my years at Good Shepherd Telford Ave Mt Eden has never left me and I hope that Father McMahon especially is at the top of the list to be examined. For cruelty to children there should be Sisters Edward (Std 1) teacher in the mid ’50’s, Catherine Std 4 teacher also in the mid ’50’s and the nun who took Std 5 & 6 ’58/’59. She loved her strap and loved to curl it around the hand and arm so as to leave a huge welt for the rest of the day. This didn’t change me, it simply taught me the meaning of hate. I know that McMahon touched the altar boys, because at a school reunion, one of the boys, in my class, admitted it to a group of the girls, in my class, the treatment dealt out to him, as an altar boy. Through that reunion, I found out that due to the Sisters of St Joseph and Fr. McMahon none of my class (except myself) continued life as practicing Catholic’s. That is the damage that those so called “carer’s” did to us. Thank God, my parents had a very close relationship with God and taught my sister and I how to separate, the evil done at Good Shepherd, from our loving God.

By: Hamish

Hamish — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 03:32:11 +0000

The danger completely overlooked or perhaps
sidelined is the evasive tactics of the Secular
Humanist who has penetrated deeply into not
just western society, but the church itself even
with religious falling into the trap.
Fr Karl Rahner SJ, advisor to Vatican II put it
this way :
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or
not exist at all”.

If Jesus Christ is not the Lord, then who is?

By: Tertia

Tertia — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 11:14:41 +0000

Pity they didn’t heed Garabandal?