Long-Closed Catholic Orphanage in Vermont To Be Investigated by Authorities

Civil authorities in Vermont are forming  an investigative task force that will look into allegations of “physical, mental and sexual abuse and even murder” at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, according to the Associated Press.

 

The orphanage closed in 1974. 

The report notes that Bishop Christopher Coyne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington said the diocese will cooperate with the investigation. The diocese consists of the entire state of Vermont.

 

According to AP, the investigation stems in part from allegations made in We Saw Nuns Kill Children, a recent story published online at Buzzfeed. The allegations include a young boy being tossed out a window to his death. It is reported that many of these allegations were published in the Burlington Free Press in the 1990s. Subsequently, the Burlington diocese made $5,000 payments to “an estimated 60 former residents to settle civil lawsuits,” the AP reports.

Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan, who spoke Monday at a Burlington press conference along with Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, said that the investigation is necessary despite obstacles.

“While there may be challenges, given the current state of our laws, we want to hear from the victims, we want to give voice to the victims, we want to stand up for the victims of sexual abuse who have suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church, not only here in our state, but across the country,” he said, according to AP, as published by the Brattleboro Reformer.

One former resident who attended Monday’s press conference said she was never sexually abused at the orphanage but had been abused physically and emotionally. Louise Piche, 73, of Shelburne, Vermont, whowas part of the lawsuits that settled with the diocese in the 1990s, told the AP that “people were afraid to talk because they would be condemned for life, for eternity. It’s a belief that people can’t understand who haven’t been there.”

 

St. Joseph’s operated near downtown Burlington for over 100 years. After it closed became the offices for the Roman Catholic diocese. It was eventually sold to Burlington College, which dissolved in 2016.