St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage was an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

located in

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, best known for allegations of child sexual and physical abuse by one

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, seven nuns, and five

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson ...

, between the 1930s and 1970s. It opened with the merger of St. Thomas Orphanage and St. Vincent Orphanage in 1955 and closed in 1983 as a result of rising costs and increased government services for orphans.

History

St. Vincent Orphanage

St. Vincent Orphanage, for girls, was opened in 1832 in Louisville,

, by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. It was first located at 443 South 5th Street until 1836, then moved to the corner of Wenzel and Jefferson Streets from 1836 to 1892, the present site of

Bellarmine University Bellarmine University (BU; ) is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. It opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named after Saint Rober ...

from 1892 to 1901, and 2120 Payne Street to 1955, the year of the merger with St. Thomas Orphanage.

St. Thomas Orphanage

In 1850,

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Martin J. Spalding of the

Diocese of Louisville The Archdiocese of Louisville is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that consists of twenty-four counties in the central American state of Kentucky, covering . As of 2018, the archdiocese contains app ...

, Kentucky delegated Father Francis Chambige to establish an orphanage for boys, as the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth had recently established one for girls. It opened near

Bardstown Bardstown is a home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 11,700 in the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Nelson County. Bardstown is named for the pioneering Bard brothers. David Bard obtained a l ...

, Kentucky, in 1858, on farmland owned by St. Thomas Seminary. Two Sisters of Charity of Nazareth were assigned to the orphanage, and the first boys lived in a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

dormitory building. When those facilities became too crowded, the seminary donated some of the farmland and built a building for the orphanage. The land included vegetable gardens, which helped with food costs until the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, when both

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers would scour the land and take the food. In 1889, the original building burned down and the orphanage was moved temporarily to facilities in Louisville, Kentucky, on what is now the location of Bellarmine University, where it was located in the building of the recently closed Preston Park Seminary from 1910 to 1938. The St. Thomas then moved to new facilities on Ward Avenue, Anchorage, Kentucky.

St. Vincent–St. Thomas Orphanage

In 1952, St. Thomas Orphanage and St. Vincent Orphanage merged to form St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage, located at St. Thomas's former Anchorage location. From St. Vincent, 81 girls moved to a newly completed wing of the St. Thomas building, allowing many brothers and sisters to be reunited. The National Conference of Catholic Charities administered the new orphanage, and naturally, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth staffed it, as they were the staffers of both the predecessor institutions. In 1982, the orphanage held 450 children, up from 250 in 1966; much of this growth can be attributed to more abused and neglected children being taken in rather than solely orphans. Living conditions during the orphanage's last years have been revealed by a former resident from 1981 to 1983, who was written about in a 2005 Washington Post article describing St. Thomas–St. Vincent as:

Some sort of
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
run by nuns. The orphanage housed about 450 children, who slept in a room as big as a gymnasium filled with dozens of beds. "I remember it being very cold," he said, "and always being scared."

In 1983, St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage closed as a result of rising costs and increased government services for orphans. The building was demolished later that year, and was replaced by a housing development comprising 572 houses called Owl Creek Community.

Facilities

The campus of St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage, formerly the campus of St. Thomas Orphanage, was located on 230 rural acres. The first building, completed in 1938, held dormitories, classrooms, nurseries, reading and recreation rooms, and a training center. The grounds included vegetable and flower gardens as well as athletic fields. The final construction phase was completed in 1952 with a wing for girls from St. Vincent Orphanage during the merger. In 1954 a concrete and brick gymnasium was built at a cost of $100,000, and was connected to the main building by a sheltered pathway.

Sexual and physical abuse

For around 40 years, St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage, and its predecessors St. Thomas and St. Vincent orphanages were the sites of multiple instances of sexual and physical abuse of orphans at the hands of staff. On July 14, 2004, a

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

was filed on behalf of 45 victims alleging sexual and physical abuse at the three orphanages, all of which were operated by Catholic Charities and staffed by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who were the defendants in the case. More than 20 of the victims accused Father Herman J. Lammers, a priest and chaplain of the orphanage, while others accused seven nuns and two laymen. The accused were: Fr. Herman J. Lammers, Sr. Charlie, SCN, Sr. Madeline de Paul, SCN, Sr. Mary Camilla Donahue, SCN, Sr. Frances Howard, SCN, Sr. Eva Marie, SCN, Sr. Mary Ann Powers, SCN, Sr. Mary Alma Stuecker, SCN, Joseph Anthony, James Patrick Cronan, Joseph Michael, Anthony Louise Pereira, and Stanislas Kotska Willett. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the lawsuit.

Notable cases

Ann Wilson of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, was born in 1945 and lived at St. Thomas–St. Vincent Orphanage in the early 1950s with her four sisters, all of whom later filed suits. She and her sisters all claimed to have been

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

d and molested by Fr. Lammers, and one was impregnated, and had a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

. They also spoke of physical and sexual abuse by nuns, who they alleged beat and molested them, and locked them in dark rooms without food. Gladys Cambron, aged 72, was the oldest person to sue, and claimed she was molested by two nuns and a priest starting at age 6. She lived at St. Vincent Orphanage from 1938 until 1943, and accused Fr. Lammers of sexually abusing her. She alleged physical as well as sexual abuse by nuns, saying that she was punished for talking in class by being tied to a chair while a nun "beat the life out of me."

Kim Michele Richardson Kim Michele Richardson is an American writer. As a child Richardson was placed in a rural Kentucky orphanage, Saint Thomas-Saint Vincent Orphan Asylum. In 2004, she and her sisters, along with 40 other plaintiffs who had lived in the institutio ...

wrote a memoir about her experiences at the orphanage in 2009, ''The Unbreakable Child''. Richardson confronts the institutionalized physical and emotional abuse suffered by orphans at the hands of their caretakers, and also documents the lawsuit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Thomas-St. Vincent Orphanage Orphanages in the United States Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in the United States 1832 establishments in Kentucky 1983 disestablishments in Kentucky Anchorage, Kentucky