CAP-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Quebec — The Roman Catholic Church will not apologize to Quebec orphans who say they were beaten and sexually abused in church-run psychiatric institutions decades ago.
But Msg. Pierre Morissette, who heads the assembly of Quebec bishops that issued the decision, said the bishops support the government's offer of $3 million to orphans who claim they were abused.An apology, however, "would constitute a denial of the historic work accomplished under difficult conditions by the religious communities involved," Morissette said.
The $3 million offer by Premier Lucien Bouchard's government has been rejected as inadequate. The church itself plans no compensation for the so-called Duplessis orphans, Morissette said.
As children, most of them poor and born to single mothers, they were placed in church-run orphanages and psychiatric institutions during the period when Maurice Duplessis was premier of Quebec. Quebec is heavily Roman Catholic, and out-of-wedlock births at the time were a source of deep shame. Many of the 3,000 survivors claim they were beaten, molested or raped at the institutions. Some allege they were given electroshocks and confined to straitjackets even though there was nothing wrong with them.
AP, 9/16/99
donderdag, september 16, 1999
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