Unto Us a Child

Sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy is not a new phenomenon.  The young brothers and sisters of the Albert family of Wichita, Kansas, lived through this unholy nightmare in the 1950s, a time when the Church and its anointed were not to be questioned or challenged.
Placed by the Wichita municipal government and the local Catholic diocese in the St. Joseph Home in El Dorado, Kansas, the seven Albert children were taken away from their parents and a dirt-poor existence.  But there was no refuge in the orphanage, where the nuns beat, belittled, and bullied them.  Some of the nuns had other kinds of lessons for the boys after school . . . and the priests had appetites that could not even be whispered about in the confessional.
Ray, Don, Gene, Dean, Roy, Norma Jean, and Darlene grew to adulthood, each repressing memories and keeping shameful secrets about their time at St. Joseph’s.  Not until decades later, with the discovery of Darlene’s secret photo album, did a torrent of memories flood back.  Years of mental and physical pain and suffering could be traced back to the days – and nights – at St. Joseph’s where those who talked to them about heaven had led them into private hells that lasted a lifetime.

In Unto Us A Child, author Donald T. Phillips has taken the facts courageously revealed by the Albert family and skillfully recreated their chilling story.  Along the way, he documents:  how the government of Ireland, in partnership with the Irish Catholic church, dealt with the issue of abortion; how pregnant unwed girls were forced into specialized homes (more commonly called Laundries); how their babies were sold for profit and shipped to the four corners of the earth; and how homeless, indigent children were placed in institutional orphanages where rampant abuse was common.  Phillips also demonstrates how, with a massive influx of Irish Catholic priests, America’s Catholic church was heavily by the practices and culture Ireland’s Catholics.  Unto Us A Child further relates the psychological impact and long-term effects of physical and sexual abuse, especially those of pedophilia.