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https://theconversation.com/abusive-orphanages-and-forced-adoption-delving-into-past-child-welfare-practices-that-haunt-the-present-199414>
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Review: Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally (Hachette); Crazy
Bastard – Abraham Maddison (Wakefield Press)
Recent publicity about the continuing abuse of children in out-of-home care may
be a source of shame for Australians, but it does not come as a surprise.
A series of inquiries at both state and Commonwealth level over the last
quarter century exposed such “care” as inherently abusive. The inquiries also
detailed the lengths to which the governing institutions were prepared to go to
deny this reality.
The United States has resisted the “age of inquiry” that has swept across much
of the western world, leaving former orphanage residents to pursue their cases
through the courts as individuals.
It is this struggle that forms the core of journalist Christine Kenneally’s
latest book,
Ghosts of the Orphanage. Her focus is on St Joseph’s Orphanage
in Burlington, Vermont, where generations of children were under the control of
untrained and often cruel nuns, and a series of paedophilic priests.
A reunion in 1994 provided the opportunity for former residents to share their
memories of cruel and sometimes bizarre punishments. They engaged a lawyer and
were able to show commonalities across these memories. But they were forced to
pursue redress as individuals at a time when the community was disinclined to
believe that the church would lie. Most settled out of court.
The reputation of the Catholic Church has since been damaged by clerical sexual
abuse scandals across the world, which have raised awareness of the lengths to
which the Church has been prepared to go to keep its secrets.
Kenneally’s book thus addresses a more sympathetic audience than survivors
faced in the past. She has also uncovered material that was not available at
the time of the original cases. This new evidence has allowed her to validate
the survivors’ memories and document systematic failures, not only within St
Joseph’s Orphanage, but in similar institutions within and beyond the United
States."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
