Sister Norma Giannini

UPDATE, April 23, 2009: Norma Giannini Released
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UPDATE, December 12, 2008: Early release denied for nun in sex abuse case
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UPDATE, February 1, 2008: Giannini sentenced to one year in prison
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Here's another black eye for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Catholic Church.





From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

On the day she was to go to trial for charges she molested two teenage boys 40 years ago, Sister Norma Giannini pleaded no contest this morning to two felony counts of indecent behavior with a child.

The 79-year-old former principal of the grade school of St. Patrick's Congregation spoke with a firm voice that faltered nearly to a whisper as she answered Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald's questions about her change of plea, which puts her at risk of up to 20 years in prison. The charges she now stands convicted of say that Giannini initiated sexual contact with each of the boys in the 1960s and continued sex acts repeatedly, sometimes at her house.

Years later, when questioned by the Archdiocese Response to Sexual Abuse panel in 1996, she said, "I thought I was in love with both of them," according to court records.

Giannini wore black to the hearing and offered no explanation during or after it, speaking only in response to Donald's questions. As she did, her two victims, now middle-age, looked on intently. One looked skyward when his name was mentioned in court.

Giannini, who lives in Illinois, is being allowed to remain free on a signature bond until her sentencing date Feb. 1. While she silently trudged with her cane toward the courthouse door, her victims discussed what the day signified for them, both lamenting the delay and wishing that a third alleged victim hadn't committed suicide.

I don't know how these abusers could live with themselves, these people who supposedly gave their lives to serving God.

For 40 years, Giannini lived with this. Did she feel any remorse? Was she tormented by feelings of guilt?

Was her third victim's suicide related to the abuse? Does she care?

As a Catholic, I have known so many wonderful priests and nuns. They don't deserve to have their characters questioned. I have a great deal of compassion for them. I know that these abuse cases are heavy burdens.

In addition to the boys she abused, Giannini has victimized every faithful priest and nun.

A few years ago, as the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was exploding around the nation, my parish priest said that he was ashamed to say that he was a priest. That's a powerful statement.

"It could have ended so many years earlier and helped so many much earlier," said Gerald Kobs, now 55, who said he wanted to speak publicly as a sign of encouragement for other sexual-abuse victims.

He and fellow victim James St. Patrick, now 53, called Giannini a complicated woman and said they look forward to addressing her directly, for the first time in years, at the sentencing hearing.

"I can't forgive her yet," Kobs said. "She has given me that look she has, like the game is not over."

St. Patrick, who like Kobs now has gray hair yet finds himself in a confrontation that began in his childhood, said he doesn't know how to forgive Giannini.

"It's like going into a horror movie," said St. Patrick, who has changed his surname since his student days. "She's like Dracula to me. How do you forgive something that's not human?"

It's very sad that when these men were boys their lives were altered forever by this abusive woman.

If only Giannini was stopped after the first encounters rather than carrying out one hundred.

TMJ4 reports, "[The victims] say the nun abused them at the school, inside her convent and even in their homes."

[T]he victims say they hope they can begin the healing process. Their emotions are still very raw.

“We were raped. We were raped,” Jim Saint Patrick said.

Even though Giannini is 79, I don't think there's any question that she needs to be held accountable for her crimes.

We have laws. She committed crimes. She shouldn't be granted immunity simply because of her age.

Giannini also committed sins. I believe that God will judge her for what she's done. He knows what's in her heart.

I hope the victims are able to heal now. Forty years is a long, long time to have an open wound.

I also hope that people understand that Giannini's acts were those of a perverted, abusive woman, a criminal.

Her crimes shouldn't be used to disparage or mock the many, many devoted nuns who have spent their lives serving God by serving his people.