A congregation of nuns linked to the Basilica of Sacré Coeur suffered over 40 years of psychological manipulation and spiritual abuse under a now-dead mother superior described as a “narcissistic pervert” an independent commission concluded.
The Benedictine Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre (BSCM), who manage the Sacré Cœur sanctuary on the hill overlooking Paris, welcomed the report they commissioned into the sect-like behaviour of their former prioress general Mother Marie Agnès.
Nuns in the congregation’s nine priories in France were cut off from their families, denied any free time, spied upon, force-fed, robbed of their assets, given unlabelled medications and deprived of proper medical care. “A toothache will pass if you say the rosary,” was typical advice.
The nuns live a monastic life of prayer and eucharistic adoration. At the basilica in Paris, they sing in the choir but do not mix with the faithful.
All 86 current members wanted to testify, as did 28 women who left the BSCM. Nearly 1,500 instances of abuse were documented from the 1970s to the early 2010s.
“Of the abuses recorded … 66 per cent had psychological consequences for the sisters and former sisters,” said the report by the Independent Commission on Spiritual Abuse and Psychological Manipulation (CIASEP) said. Some nuns had attempted suicide.
Mother Marie-Élie Hancock, the current prioress general, said exposing these abuses was a necessary step towards healing the congregation. The report found no sexual violence but, as Hancock said, “abuse of conscience can be as damaging as rape”.
The case represents another field of investigation for the French Church, which has been faced with sexual abuse accusations for years and has gradually confronted them with honesty, humility and compensation.
In a statement, the Archdiocese of Paris said it “now acknowledges that for many years, its leaders failed to exercise their own duty of vigilance regarding the congregation and the serious abuses that occurred within it”.
Mother Marie Agnès, who died in 2016, became BSCM head aged 33, despite the minimum age being 40. She was re-elected for five six-year terms from 1969 to 1998, followed by 12 years as assistant general with considerable sway over her inexperienced successor.
Money from BSCM members was used by her and two other nuns to visit gourmet restaurants, especially when hosting prelates, and to enjoy Riviera vacations. A house outside Paris afforded lavish living without their habits.
An apostolic visitation in 2004, when her successor quit BSCM and denounced Mother Marie Agnès, produced no results.
A second visitation in 2012 named a commissary to oversee the nuns but it was not until Hancock was elected prioress general in 2020 that reform took hold.
Founded in Paris in 1898, BSCM moved to London in 1903 as France passed its laïcité laws.
In 1947, those returning kept the name in France and those staying became the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre – also known as the Tyburn Nuns – in Britain and abroad.