It is interesting that we never hear about the physical and verbal abuses that took place in Catholic schools during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s by some religious people who taught in the schools.
The Catholic Church buried its head in the sand during those times, acting as if these things did not occur. To say that this type of treatment of students was under the guise of “discipline” was wrong and it should have been stopped.
Students should have come forward if they were physically or verbally abused by these holy people. The reasons many of them did not was because they were afraid to — probably out of fear of retribution. There were many fine, dedicated religious teachers who also taught in the Catholic school system.
Those who were physically and verbally abusive were probably in the minority, but it only takes a few teachers like that to cause so much emotional scarring on students for the rest of their lives.
Shame on the heads of the religious orders who buried their heads in the sand and did nothing to stop this awful thing. Did they have a conscience?
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
