'This is the next big thing for the church': Women claim they were sexually abused as children by evil, rapist NUNS who they say outnumber pedophile priests
- Dozens of people have contacted victims groups saying they were raped by nuns as children
- Among them is Cait Finnegan, 57, who says she was attacked by Sister Mary Juanita repeatedly in the 1950s
- Sister Mary taught Cait at the Mater Christi High School in Queens, New York
- Mary Dispenza, another alleged victim, says she thinks the problem is worse than pedophile priests because nuns have greater access to children
A sexual abuse victims network is alleging that nuns have been raping children within the Catholic church and getting away with it for decades in what they say is a scandal as big as that of pedophile priests.
In the last week alone, dozens of people have come forward to report being sexually abused by nuns as children to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
They have told how they were targeted by the women while being cared for in orphanages and schools over the last 50 years.
Among the alleged victims are women in their 60s and 70s who are telling their stories for the first time now.
Mary Dispenza (left) and Cait Finnegan (right) both say they were raped by nuns as youngsters. Both stayed in the church for years afterwards but are now campaigning on behalf of sexual abuse victims
'This is the next big thing for the church — the biggest untold secret,' Mary Dispenza, a director at Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a St. Louis-based advocacy group, told The New York Post on Monday.
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'In the past, victims were very much ashamed and afraid to tell their stories, but they are starting to come forward and we are expecting that this may be as big as the priest abuse scandal.'
Among them is Cait Finnegan, a 67-year-old woman who says she was routinely abused as a teenager by Sister Juanita Barto at the Mater Christi High School in Queens, New York.
Mary Dispenza was a nun for 15 years but has given up her habit recently in order to campaign on behalf of sexual abuse victims
'She was obsessed with me 24 hours a day. The woman owned me,' she told The Post.
Mary Dispenza also claims to have been abused as a child both by a priest and later by a nun in California.
'She took my face in her two hands, and kissed me all over my face. And then I just remember leaving. I felt the same way I felt as a child.
'I felt lost, I felt abandoned, I felt confused, I felt alone,' she wrote in a 2014 memoir about her childhood.
Finnegan said her abuser 'vowed to chastity as she raped me.'
She believes that the nuns are acting out of 'unattended rage' after having been abused themselves.
'It’s going to come out as physical abuse of children and sexual abuse.
'I believe it’s what turns so many of them into nasty b*****s in the convent,' she said.
The Sisters of Mercy, the religious order which Sister Mary Juanita worked for, did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's inquiries on Monday morning.
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