The Sisters of the Good Shepherd

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who are known by their proper name, The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The Order belongs to a Catholic international congregation of religious women dedicated to promoting the welfare of women and girls. The Sisters arrived in Australia in 1863 and established and ran convents such as Abbotsford Convent and Parramatta Girls Home in Sydney and Magdalene laundries between 1890s to the 1960s in most capital cities which were large convents for young and teenage girls. The laundries were initially established as refuges, where the girls were allowed to leave. This, however, changed in the early 1900s, as the Sisters began to accept court referrals and thus were forcibly confined and forced to work in the industrial laundries. The girls who worked in the laundries was regarded as suitable due to the unskilled nature of the work. In essence the girls were treated as inmates in which they were given bland food, did back breaking work and were confined to long periods of silence. Furthermore, the girls were either given no education or very limited.

Like many other female religious orders in Australia, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd has been involved in matters dealing with child sexual and physical abuse. The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2017 provided the following figures on the religious order:

  • 33 people made a claim of child sexual abuse received by the Good Shepherd Sisters – Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (1% of all claims of child sexual abuse)

  • This represents 8% of all claims received by religious institutes with only religious sister members.

  • Of these claims of child sexual abuse:

a. 11 (33%) identified one or more religious sister as an alleged perpetrator.

b. 10 (30%) identified one or more priest as an alleged perpetrator.

c. Three (9%) identified one or more lay person as an alleged perpetrator. Some claims identified more than one alleged perpetrator with differing religious statuses.

  • 11 (33%) people made a claim of child sexual abuse which identified more than one alleged perpetrator.

  • 17 (52%) people who made a claim of child sexual abuse also made an allegation of physical abuse.

  • The gender of claimants (where the gender was reported) was 3% male and 97% female.

  • The average age of the claimants at the time of the alleged child sexual abuse was not known.

  • 0% of claimants were under the age of 13 years at the time of the alleged child sexual abuse and 100% were between 13 and 18 years of age (where the age was known).

  • It was not known the percentage of claimants alleged that the incidents of child sexual abuse occurred in the period from 1970 to 1989 (inclusive).

  • The decade with the largest proportion of first-alleged incidents of child sexual abuse was not known.

  • In relation to alleged perpetrators, the Royal Commission provided the following figures:

  • 44 alleged perpetrators were subject to one or more claims of child sexual abuse received by the Good Shepherd Sisters – Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. This represents 2% of all alleged perpetrators and 9% of alleged perpetrators identified by religious institutes with only religious sister members.

  • Of the alleged perpetrators subject to one or more claims of child sexual abuse:

a. 13 had a known identity (30%). In 31 cases (70%) the survey response did not contain enough information to identify the alleged perpetrator.

b. Where this information was known, 49% were male and 51% was female.

c. Where this information was known, 7% were alive at the time the first claim of child sexual abuse was made against them.

  • The average number of claims received per alleged perpetrator was 1.0.

  • Of the alleged perpetrators subject to one or more claims of child sexual abuse:

a. 10 (23%) were reported to be a priest.

b. 10 (23%) were reported to be a non-ordained religious.

c. Three (7%) were reported to be a lay person.

d. In 21 (48%) of the cases the religious status of the accused was not known.

  • The highest number of claims of child sexual abuse received by the Good Shepherd Sisters – Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd against a single alleged perpetrator was two.

Moody Law is currently representing clients who have made allegations of sexual and physical abuse while they were placed at laundries/convents run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

We invite former victims to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

Call us or complete the confidential enquiry form below.