Sister Bernard Mary

The Sisters of Nazareth yesterday moved to protect a senior nun accused of sexual and physical attacks on children at a Brisbane orphanage many years ago, refusing to reveal her whereabouts.

Sr Clare Breen, leader of the congregation in Australia and New Zealand, refused to say where the nun was or supply a contact number.

"I just don't think it's fair to be telling people where she is at this stage," Sr Clare said.

Sr Clare said the nun was interviewed by Queensland Police in 1999, after 17 former residents of Nazareth House in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum filed Supreme Court writs claiming they were sexually or physically abused by nuns at the home in the 1950s and 1960s.

Police did not lay charges and the allegations were settled out of court last year, when the Sisters of Nazareth agreed to pay amounts ranging  to 16 women and one man. The senior nun, accused of raping one girl with a flagstick, beating other girls and molesting some of them, is one of four of the accused nuns who are still alive.

LINKS
Abuse spotlight on Sisters of Nazareth (29/8/02)
Sisters of Nazareth
Breach of Faith (The Bulletin)
Orphanage abuse allegations (ABC Radio ´AM´)
Australian nuns in sex abuse spotlight (CNN)