The Secrets of St. Joseph's Catholic Orphanage
St. Joseph's Catholic Orphanage, located in Vermont, houses many secrets within its walls. Though it is no longer being operated, and has been closed down for many years, people who lived there are finally coming forward, and telling their stories of what they experienced. For example, Sally Dale, who was once an orphan at St. Joseph's, shared a story about a time that she saw a nun throw a little boy out of a fourth-floor window. The boy fell to his death, and when Sally questioned the nun standing next to her about what had just happened, the nun grabbed her by the ear, turned her around, and told her that she must have made it up. Besides this incident, there were other forms of both psychological torture and abuse that took place behind the orphanage's walls. Children were forced to stand or kneel for hours with their arms straight out. Sometimes, they were even forced to hold an object as well. These same children were "forced to eat their own vomit, dangled upside down out of windows, over wells, or in laundry chutes." The nuns also locked children in closets and attics, sometimes for days, or sometimes even for so long that they forgot about them. The children were constantly being told that no one wanted them, and that they were permanently separated from their siblings. Children were also sexually abused and mutilated.
For a very long time, Sally Dale and other children who survived this and other orphanages, didn't want to talk about what had happened there. Some children went on to have children and grandchildren, without ever telling anyone that they had ever been in an orphanage. Others had lost all trust in anyone, and failed to form any good connections with other people.
After all these years, people have started coming forward and telling their stories of what happened to them. "For the former residents of St. Joseph's---- and for people in Albany and Kentucky and Montana who emerged from orphanages with similar stories--- the fight was something much more. It was a chance most of them had never had before: to be heard, and maybe believed."
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christinekenneally/orphanage-death-catholic-abuse-nuns-st-josephs
This is so disturbing. It is important that people like Sally Dale are now able to speak out about what they went through. It is terrifying to hear about the ways in which people in positions of power sometimes completely abuse that power. Sadly, the people who are the victims of abuses of power, such as the children of St. Joseph's Catholic Orphanage in this case, are often unable to take action against their oppressors because they risk their lives in doing so and simply do not have enough power on their own to change the situation (as we have seen in multiple different situations, on both a small and large scale, that we have studied in class). However, it is crucial to listen to the stories of people who have experienced these abuses of power in order to help prevent power from ending up in the wrong hands again in the future and in order to make sure to look out for groups of people who might be especially at risk of becoming victims in these situations. Here, the only people who had any responsibility to look out for the children were the ones behind the horrific abuse of power. When the only people who are supposed to be responsible completely abuse their responsibility, who exactly should be including these children in their "universe of obligation," and how can that be determined?
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