Maura Labelle: It’s time to release the names of nuns who abused Vermont children

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This commentary is by Maura Labelle, a resident of Colchester.

Now that Lent and Easter are over, Vermont Catholic Bishop Christopher Coyne needs to begin a new mission.

In August 2019, Coyne released an incomplete list of Vermont clergy credibly accused of child abuse. 

Curiously, the Diocese of Burlington has never released a list of nuns who were credibly accused of abuse. As a survivor of St. Joseph’s Orphanage, I know that abusive nuns existed. Nuns participated in physical, sexual and emotional abuse of orphanage children. This is well documented, including in a report by former Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan.

While in Burlington recently, Christine Kenneally, author of the just released book ”Ghosts of the Orphanage” and the 2018 Buzzfeed article on abuse at St. Joseph’s Orphanage, revealed that she had asked the local diocese why there was no list of credibly accused nuns. The diocese never responded. 

Why? Kenneally asked a legitimate question. Meanwhile, her book has brought new attention to abuse by Catholic clergy and is well worth reading.

The wall of silence about abuse is part of the diocese playbook. Coyne is always happy to walk across the street from his office on Joy Drive in South Burlington to the WCAX studio on the same street to be interviewed about religious holidays and faith issues. 

Too often, when asked about abuse in the diocese, Coyne releases canned statements likely written by his overpaid attorneys, or doesn’t respond at all. Why is he allowed to get away with this? 

Given Coyne’s lack of cooperation when the going is tough, the Vermont press should look elsewhere for comments on religious issues that are easier to discuss. For instance, Vermont is home to the Rt. Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, the first African American Vermont Episcopal Bishop. She could offer a different perspective based on her background as a woman of color that would be interesting to Vermonters. Diversity matters.

For now, I ask Vermont reporters to aggressively question Coyne about nuns being left off the list of credibly accused clergy, and not accept prepared statements by lawyers who control Coyne’s every comment. Don’t let Coyne get away with nonanswers. 

The press might ask Coyne how much the diocese has paid its attorneys since clergy child abuse in Vermont was exposed by Sam Hemingway of the Burlington Free Press in the 1990s. Coyne — or, as I call him, “COIN the Moneyman,” because he just loves money — likes to cry poverty about the diocese’s finances. Yet he continues to pay lawyers big bucks. And he gave $50,000 to the 2022 campaign against Proposal 5 (Vermont’s new constitutional amendment). 

The Vatican has money, too. $1 billion will be spent to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, while the church refuses to help victims it hurt.

Here’s what Coyne had to say Feb. 22 on WCAX at the beginning of Lent:

“The season of Lent gives me and all others an opportunity to kind of reflect upon the positive things in my life, but also the things that need to change, the things I need to let go of, the things that are getting in the way of my being as good and as kind and as charitable and holding a person as I can be.”

COIN the moneyman, if you believe Lent is about more than giving up cheeseburgers on Friday, help clergy abuse victims. Change the hypocrisy in the church. Stop running for archbishop. Speak out for all hurt by abuse and the subsequent cover-up. Challenge Pope Francis and the College of Cardinals. 

Many victims just want the church to pay for counseling while being allowed to choose their own mental health counselor. You won’t allow that. Why do you want to send victims to church counselors who couldn’t help pedophile priests? Abuse victims need to be empowered, not controlled. Most do not trust church counselors. 

You know why there are empty pews and closing churches. It’s abuse and hypocrisy. People don’t like it. 

Bishop Coyne, you can lead the effort to help abuse victims or be remembered as another Catholic leader who failed church abuse victims. You control your legacy. Don’t end up like your late friend and boss, Cardinal Bernard Law, who is despised for his handling of clergy abuse in Boston.

I encourage clergy abuse victims to contact their local police department and consult an attorney. The last thing anyone should do is contact the Catholic diocese in hopes that it will help. It won’t.