• Vermont Catholic Church lifts NDA on survivors of abuse at St Joseph's Orphanage
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https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2018/09/28/st-josephs-orphanage-survivors-freed-nondisclosure-agreements/1454133002/ Christopher J. Coyne, bishop of the diocese of Burlington, announced on Friday morning that he is waiving the nondisclosure agreements abuse survivors signed with the church. "I wish to inform all survivors of abuse who entered into a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) with the Diocese of Burlington as part of a legal settlement that the Diocese waives that agreement and they are now free to tell the story of what happened to them as they see fit," Coyne wrote in the statement sent by diocese spokeswoman Ellen Kane. By waiving the agreements, Coyne removed the threat of a a lawsuit by the church against survivors who talk publicly about the abuse they suffered as children at St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington. Coyne wrote that his waiver applies only to NDAs signed with the diocese and not any other church entity such as a religious community or school. However, the diocese will continue to honor its end of the agreements and "will maintain the personal privacy" of anyone who signed an agreement.Typically such agreements bind both parties to silence and when dissolved, both sides are freed. The state is investigating allegations of abuse, some decades old, at St. Joseph's run by the Sisters of Providence after the publication of the article on Buzzfeed, "Ghosts of the Orphanage." "It is my hope that this past action as well as the present one will allow the truth of what happened to survivors and their families to be heard," Coyne states. "I pledge to you, as the bishop of Burlington, that I will do everything that I can to make sure this never happens again and to work for healing and reconciliation with those who were so badly abused by clergy." Buzzfeed did a four year long investigation and found some horrific stuff.
What? What sort of scum uses an NDA to cover up abuse?
What the fuck
NDA's are used to cover up a ton of shit, and not just for church abuse either. Businesses, institutes, everything across the country that has the money to hire 20 lawyers will lock potential suitors into an NDA to prevent damaging their image.
NDAs are standard when you settle. When you're an abuse victim from the church, you can choose to sign a NDA and take a cash settlement or risk being dragged to the mud in court for a long period of time and get nothing but humiliation and unwanted exposure.
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