Abuse of children is always appalling and unforgiveable, whether perpetrated by a parent, a relative or a stranger. There's an added layer of disgrace to the crime when the perpetrators abuse not only children but their own authority and religious power.
Such was the case with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth at the St. Thomas/St. Vincent Orphanage, where more than a dozen nuns, a resident priest, and several other male employees routinely abused the boys and girls in their care.
Author Kim Richardson survived years of physical and emotional abuse at their hands in the 1960s, abuse that began at the tender age of four. Years later, she and forty-four other survivors, including her sisters, launched a lawsuit against the nuns. That suit resulted in the first-ever monetary settlement paid by Roman Catholic nuns in the United States as compensation for decades of institutional abuse at an orphanage. This is not a book about hatred or revenge, but an inspiring story of a girl who would not be broken.
