My Mom did do some volunteer work later in life and some of her associates were nuns. They loved her and looked after my mom. I know I got a very kind letter from the one when my mother died. I am glad my mother saw that not all of them are bad at all.
Sr. Placida must have been trained in heaven - she was one of the finest women I've ever known. Sr. Stephen, howeveer, was demonic. We used to call her Attila the Nun.
But overall, they were a wonderful group of dedicated women.
I personally never had any real contact with one, but my poor mother did. The stories she told me made me tear up. She was seriously humiliated as a poor girl attending class without the ability to have clean clothes and basic luxuries most take for granted. I am convinced some of these nuns are sadistic old bats that never had a desire to connect with anyone on the outside world.
Like millions of others, she left the church once she grew up and realized the abuse she endured.
The most chilling story my mother told me was about the one nun that would make these pubescent young women line up for the "sniff test". You know what that was? Each young woman had to get up on a small step stool so "sister" could sniff under their long skirts. This was done in front of all their peers. Some girls were told they "smelled". Imagine the scars of that!
In today's world, that would be considered sexual abuse and these lovely sisters would be in jail.
You know what's sad? My mother was still devout when she first left school and went into the convent for 6 months. Then reality kicked in and she got out. She then met and married my protestant dad and was told by the local priest she was doomed to hell. I have a feeling she once believed that.
She never embraced any faith in her later years; just a belief in God and something bigger and better than her. I can only hope she has peace wherever she is now.
A sniff test? What the hell were they looking for? Or was that how they got their rocks off? I am glad your mom got out and married your dad or you wouldn't be here now.
Thank-you Lulu. I am certain it must have been horrible for those girls, especially those that didn't have access to running water and any ability to stay clean. My mother was the oldest of 13 that literally lived in a shack. If you got lice, you had your head dipped in kerosene. Most of us never experienced that kind of poverty and then to have these nuns ridicule you in the most humiliating way must have been horrific. I know my mother came from a terrible place considering the depression I saw in her as I grew up. So sad.
We sure here lot's of negative stories about nuns, that is for sure. The only one I knew could be very negative. I bet she has some deep dark secrets too.
That is why I tell her story. These nuns thought these kids would never tell. It may be too late for them, but these things happened. There is a reason why many churches now stand empty.
Benedict Arnold 