Many thanks to NetGalley and PublicAffairs for gifting me a digital ARC of this nonfiction book by Christine Kenneally - 5 stars!
This is a meticulously researched account of 20th century orphanages and the atrocities within so many of them. Mainly focused on St Joseph's, a Catholic orphanage in Vermont but with accounts from orphanages across the country and world. More importantly, this is a story of the victims, whose abuses have been held secret, who were judged unfairly by daring to speak up years later. It's how these abuses have permeated our institutions and society and were allowed to happen unchecked for so long.
As a Catholic and the daughter of someone who lived in an orphanage in Pennsylvania for years, I was both interested and horrified to read this book. We as a society are well aware of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, but hearing from these victims is beyond disturbing. In fact, the Catholic Diocese I live in is now in bankruptcy due to the resulting lawsuits, with no clear end in sight. It's always amazing that religion and religious figures could have any part in abuse, but humans are human, sometimes very unfortunately. This book is eye-opening and doesn't revolve only around Catholic abuse, but talks about the orphanage system in general during this time period. We must do our best to make sure that this type of history is not repeated, and keeping the issue in the light is the first step.
No comments:
Post a Comment