Volkswacht Bodensee - French mother superior bullied nuns in Montmartre: report

The allegations against the nun who died in 2016 -- which do not include any suspected sexual abuse -- are the latest in a litany of accusations against French religious figures in recent years.

Mother Marie-Agnes joined the leadership of the Benedictine sisters, some of whom are sometimes heard singing in the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre, when she was elected head nun in 1969.

A commission of inquiry interviewed 86 nuns and 28 former nuns to better assess the alleged mistreatment at the Montmartre community of Benedictine nuns from 1969 to 2012.

During that period, Mother Marie-Agnes and her allies oversaw a system that spied on, bullied, physically abused and even stole money from the women who joined the order, according to its findings published Thursday.

Physical abuse included "forced and unbalanced meals" and "force-feeding to the point of vomiting", it said.

The mother superior and two aides recruited young women, hurrying them into saying their vows before they could change their minds, then cutting them off from their families.

They maintained their grip by listening in on their conversations with visitors and reading their personal letters, the report said.

They spied on them, blackmailed them and incited them to snitch, then overworked them or drugged the most rebellious into submission to keep them in line, the report said.

During the last decade, "it became a police state", it cited one of the nuns as saying.

Management took over the women's financial assets as soon as they arrived, with the three in charge in some cases draining their savings accounts or seizing their inheritances to use them "for personal gain".

A total of more than 857,000 euros ($994,000) was thus withdrawn from the accounts of five sisters and the congregation, according to the report.

The three women meanwhile led a "lavish lifestyle", the report said, allegedly enjoying expensive meals, going on holiday to the French Riviera and making real estate investments for themselves in a village outside Paris.

M.Betschart--VB