Kim Richards' story of surviving abuse at the hands of the Catholic nuns of Kentucky's St. Thomas/St. Vincent Orphanage, and later joining the class action suit brought by 44 survivors, which ended in victory. This book is about hope, justice and ultimate forgiveness.
This book set a match to so many questions. How can this happen? Why were these women and men so cruel? How can children, orphaned children, spark brutality over compassion? How can it happen within a building full of nu ...
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about Hopeful. Moving. Excellent. review
This book set a match to so many questions. How can this happen? Why were these women and men so cruel? How can children, orphaned children, spark brutality over compassion? How can it happen within a building full of nuns and priests?
And how do some of these children survive to grow so bold and strong?
Kim Michele Richardson's book is forgiven for leaving more questions than it answers. That's the way it should be. There are no easy answers for how and why these things happen, no sense to t
he darkness that is required to harden conscience after conscience to feats of denial and protectionism. But these are questions that the victims shouldn't bear alone. Justice starts with questions.
The Unbreakable Child is a hard book to read, softened with some truly beautiful language. Ms. Richardson joined forces with ranks of survivors to unsilence the collective who'd been smothered under shame and flimsy placation for decades. The least we can do is look and listen.
A powerful and gripping memoir about an orphan growing up in a Catholic orphanage brimming with horrific abuses. A timely book regarding clergy and institutional abuse. This book and the child's journey haunted me long after I turned the last page.
I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough. This edition of The Unbreakable Child, published by Behler Publications, is new and expanded, and it has a readers guide. The memoir details Kim's horrific abuse as a child at the hands of the clergy who were supposed to be caring for her and nurturing her, and it also chronicles Kim's work, together with other former orphans, with William McMurray, a strong advocate for victims of clergy and institutional abuse. Kim and other former orphans we
re the first clergy abuse victims to win a settlement against an order of Catholic nuns. The book is very timely, with new horror stories of clergy abuse coming to light each day.Kim's story is healing to those who have themselves experienced such horrors, and it is a testament to Kim's spirit, her unbreakable strength, and the power which resides in her heart to forgive. Her memoir also offers encouragement to people who have suffered abuse, that it is possible to strengthen the broken places and live fully and freely. And last but not least, her book plays a strong and vital role in demanding accountability and apology from the Catholic church, acknowledgement by the Church of the wrongs committed by its clergy to bring about an environment, in all institutions of the Church, in which those wrongs will never be tolerated again.Kim Michele Richardson is an inspiration and a true heroine.
This was both a heartbreaking and riveting memoir pick for our book club. Richardson recounts and reveals the horrifying abuses many children suffered in US Catholic orphanages in the 1960's. Switching from past to present, Richardson deftly guides the reader into the historic lawsuit that would take place decades later. There, she exposes these injustices. My heart broke by the wickedness masquerading by clergy, and the blindness of those who allowed unspeakable cruelties to innocent children
without family. The Unbreakable Child is a book that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. A highly recommended read, this book also has a thought provoking Readers Guide.
