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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Dominion Post
September 7, 2002

Nun accused of abuse has risen from the dead
by Richard Trow

A nun accused last year of child abuse in Australia has apparently risen from the dead and is living in Christchurch.

Sister Bernard Mary was a central figure in a Queensland court case last year alleging abuse at a Brisbane orphanage in the 1950s and 1960s.

Trustees for her order, the Sisters of Nazareth, claimed in documents filed in the Queensland Supreme Court last July that she was dead.

But the Catholic Church said Sister Bernard, in her 60s, lived in Christchurch, where she leads the New Zealand order.

The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that the claim of Sister Bernard's death, made by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, said: "The . . . defendant has conducted some reasonable inquiries to date but those inquiries are incomplete and may always be incomplete, ….. due to the death of Sister Bernard Mary (and two other accused)."

The newspaper said it understood Sister Bernard was living in London and working as the order's supreme leader at the time.

One of the women who filed the claim alleged she was subjected to "daily incidents of assaults" by Sister Bernard and another nun.

Sister Bernard, who has previously denied the claim, could not be contacted yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church said she was visiting an ill family member.

The spokeswoman said the claim that Sister Bernard was dead would have been a simple mistake. "It was most definitely an administrative ….. drafting error ….. a genuine mistake. She's anything but dead."

She added the Brisbane case was settled out of court and no findings of wrongdoing against the sisters were made.