Nun Gets a Year in Prison for abusing 2 boys in 1960s

[Stuart G]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Nun gets year in prison for abusing 2 boys in 1960s
She was school principal in Milwaukee when encounters occurred

By Margaret Ramirez |Tribune reporter
1:14 PM CST, February 1, 2008



MILWAUKEE — A 79-year-old Roman Catholic nun was sentenced to one year in a correctional facility and 10 years' probation Friday for sexually abusing two boys at an elementary school here in the 1960s.

According to a complaint filed in 2006, Sister Norma Giannini engaged in dozens of sexual encounters with the two boys while she was an 8th-grade teacher and principal at St. Patrick's School. The victims were 12 and 13 at the time.

At the hearing at the Milwaukee Courthouse, one of the victims, James St. Patrick, explained how the abuse had destroyed his faith and tortured him for most of his adult life.

"I was sure I was going to hell for defiling a holy sister," he said. "What worse sin could there be? . . . I've been suicidal ever since. I spent decades trying to escape it all through drugs and alcohol."

St. Patrick and the other victim, Gerald Kobs, pleaded for the judge give Giannini prison time.

In a court document obtained by the Tribune, Giannini also admitted to a church panel that she had molested a Chicago boy and at least three other minors

Giannini avoided trial in November by pleading no-contest to two felony counts in Milwaukee of indecent behavior with a child.

Court documents show that a psychologist told prosecutors in 2006 that Giannini had identified other victims to a Milwaukee archdiocese panel.

The psychologist and other members of the panel interviewed Giannini in 1996 after the allegations of abuse emerged.

Because church officials did not report the allegations to law enforcement at the time, prosecutors began building their case in 2005 only after the victims approached civil authorities.

Prosecutors subpoenaed the psychologist, Elizabeth Piasecki, who read into the record the notes she wrote during the interview. The notes indicate that Giannini discussed molesting three other boys in Milwaukee and one in Chicago, where she worked before and after her stint in Wisconsin.

According to a transcript, Piasecki read: "One thing happened at St. Ann's before Milwaukee, a young man, a student. First time it happened. He was 14 to 15. He was in 8th grade. Started kissing and petting. I was talking to him and all of a sudden he was kissing me. Then it went on. And then unfortunate."

Piasecki's notes on the other alleged victims include: "There's one more boy . . . he was 16 years old . . . going on 20. I knew nothing. Kissing and petting, I think."

At one point, the panel asked Giannini: "What do you think that these kids thought?"

Giannini answered: "They were sowing their oats. How many teenagers would resist that opportunity?"

Sheila King, a spokeswoman for Sisters of Mercy of the Chicago Regional Community, said she could not confirm the existence of additional victims because the sister who was president at the time of those allegations is unavailable.

The current president, Sister Betty Smith, assumed her title in 2006.

The Chicago archdiocese, where Giannini served in schools for decades, referred all questions to her order. A native of Chicago, Giannini entered the convent at 18.

She started teaching in 1949 at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, followed by several other schools in the Chicago area before being sent to Milwaukee in 1964.

Giannini returned to Illinois in 1969, working at Christ the King, Mother McAuley High School, Little Flower, St. Clare of Montefalco and Holy Redeemer, where she was principal.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-nun-abuse_webfeb02,1,7218385.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-nun-abuse_webfeb02,1,7218385.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

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Sick Shit..........you had better believe it...everywhere, all the time. anytime, can affect anyone..

[BOSSHOG]

1. Damn

The Catholic Nuns in Philly back in the 60's just liked to slap us around.

[Stuart G]

2. Lots of sick people out there. then and now.

I remember reading about this one a year ago.. the Church tried to say that the nun was repentant, and no longer worked with kids.
Like it was ok. Every one covered it up when I read about it then, her order had little to say. I guess the adults/boys demanded that she be prosecuted.

[onehandle]

3. Yay! A Catholic bashing thread!

Been a while. DU's near favorite pastime.

[1620rock]

4. Umm, I think she was the one who bashed Catholics.

[onehandle]

9. Anytime a negative story about Catholics is in the news it is posted at DU.

DU is obsessed with bashing Catholics.

[mojowork_n]

16. Strange coincidence, then, that the front page of today's Journal Sentinel

has another "Catholic bashing" headline at the top of the page.

The question is, who knew what, when?

That article suggests authorities in the diocese knew, and chose to cover up, going through contortions to do so.

[Stuart G]

17. Nope..that is not the reason that I posted this...

I posted this because I felt that teachers everywhere are accused by their principals of doing terrible things. So, here is a principal in a private school who did a terrible thing. And also, people think that these kinds of things happen only now.. Well that is crap, these kinds of things happen now, before, long before, and long before that.

. To show a comparison, that has nothing to do with schools, or the current times, I was going to post this link to Dr. H.H. Holmes.

The good doctor was a serial killer over one hundred years ago. The sick and twisted were around even then. In case you do not know about the good doctor, here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

I had never heard of him either, but where I used to teach, was close by and some of the old timers there talked about the neighborhood skeleton in the closet sort to speak............

Believe me, I am not obsessed with bashing Catholics. I got Mr Bush to bash..........Stuart G.

[sybylla]

19. Mr. Holmes is also the subject of the book Devil in the White City

by Eric Larsen. A very good book, by the way, about the age that bred a very terrible person. I agree with you, this kind of crap has been happening for eons. Our media just gives us the impression this is a new thing.

There is a great book - with a strong cult following in Wisconsin - called Wisconsin Death Trip. It is a survey of death "events" from newspapers from Wisconsin during the late 1800's mixed with all the myth and traditions that went along with the times. Anyone who's read it recognizes the questionable deaths that today we would strongly suspect as murder but back then were taken as suicide or accidental.

Bad things have always happened to people. We are just getting better at bringing justice to the perpetrators.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

6. Catholics aren't being bashed,an abusive nun is being bashed.

[Javaman]

7. Bashing would be...

talking about how the nuns and priests used to use corporal punishment on us in school. No wait, that's not bashing, that FUCKING REALITY.

[Harry Monroe]

10. Corporal Punishment was the norm back then

I spent kindergarten through 8th grade in a Catholic elementary school in Kenner La. I can still remember having my head bashed against a cinder block wall by a little sadistic nun. And then my parents backing up the nun when I told them what I did to "deserve" such punishment. It's been over 20 years since I've stepped foot in a Catholic Church (except for the occasional wedding or funeral). I vowed I would never send my son to Catholic school; what was the norm back then would now be considered child abuse

[Javaman]

11. Very similar feelings with me too.

the beatings with yard sticks. The smashing of knuckles. The sadistic/pedophile gym teachers. Jock and cup inspection was just this side short of a full body cavity search. The mental abuse of being called stupid in front of the class when I couldn't figure out a math problem, then being told I was worthless in the eyes of god. (loved that one).

They were a fun bunch of bastards.

[MindPilot]

13. Did you ever have an involuntary erection that caught a nun's eye?

(Like anyone--even a teenage boy--could have a voluntary one with a nun in the room)

And get to stand there in front of entire class while she shrieked about what a filthy, disgusting little pervert you are? That was one of my faves.

[MindPilot]

12. Nuns are flat-out mean. I did Catholic school in Denver, late sixties.

You had no idea that level of violence and abuse was anything other than normal. Nuns are one of the reasons I harbor significant animosity toward religion.

[FreepFryer]

5. I don't mean to be crass but "statute of limitations"? Not a case of repressed memories, afaik...

[MindPilot]

8. "How many teenagers would resist that opportunity?"

If Sister Norma was anything like the nuns who taught at my school, the answer to that question would be all of them. Ewwww!

[truthisfreedom]

14. Strange world.

A lot weirder than I thought.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Where are all the "Wish I had a teacher like that" comments?

Oh, I forgot...If the teacher isn't babelicious, it's abuse. :eyes:

[truthisfreedom]

18. No pictures of the nun at that time are provided. For all we know, she was the most beautiful nun

ever. One thing is for sure, the whole deal is just very f***ed up, for everybody. As a nun, I think things were a bit more complicated for the boys than "babelicious."

[Broca]

20. I went to a St. Patrick's

Catholic Grade school in the early 60's but I don't remember any sex going on there. I was too weak from fasting for 12 hours before the communion wafer every morning. The outfits the nuns wore then did not quite fall into the category of sexually seductive attire. They never show up in Victoria's Secrets, or so I am told. ;-)

[onehandle]

21. I think it is so fucking funny that this post was moved to the Wisconsin forum.

Especially for a me, a big fan of the film "Dogma."

[Callalily]

22. Yes, it is curious that

this was moved to the Wisconsin group. Very sad for Misters St. Patrick and Kobs. Their abuse has lasted a long time, mentally and emotionally, as is the case with any victim of abuse.

I think those of us who went to parochial school (12 years here) all have mean/nasty nun and brother stories. But I don't think that's parochial school exclusive. My public school friends have their stories too.

Additionally, I'd like to say that I had two nun teachers that were inspiring, one in grade school and one in high school. I think about them often.