I've never even heard of Sister Charlotte, nor read her story. I would be interested in reading the story.
I was raised in the RCC. Catholics in our neighborhood were expected to place their children in the local parochial school, which went up to grade eight. My oldest sister went there all 8 years. My brothers were taken out by the time they were in 2nd and 3rd grade. Mother never started me in the parochial school. She started me at public school. The excuse was that we could not afford tuition for 4 children. Why that might be true, I suspect that there was a whole lot more to it than the excuse that was given. She probably was the talk of the neighborhood at that time because she dared to be the first one to remove her children from the school. Other people followed her example several years later.
I remember my brother was punished for something he did at school. I never knew exactly what it was that he did. In our neighborhood, the church bells rang every 6 hours. At 6 am, 12 noon and 6 pm. When my brother did not come home by 6 pm, my mother was frantic. She walked over to the school building and let herself in. Nobody locked doors in that day. She walked all over the halls looking in each room. Then she heard faint sobbing in the boiler room. She went down there and there was my brother, probably about 6 or 7 years old crying. The nun made him sit down there and threatened him if he got up. She must have forgotten him after school let out at 2:30 pm. So....she must have been pretty scary for him to stay seated for over 3 hours after school let out. My mother was livid!
One of them nuns noticed that my brother was left-handed. So whenever she saw him writing with his left hand, she took the chalkboard wooden pointer stick and whacked him on his left hand.
While I was placed in public school since kindergarden, I was to go to catechism classes every Monday night. I was terrified to go some days. The nun would question us and yell at us if she did not like our answer.
During practice for our first Holy Communion, we public school students were merged with the parochial school students for practice. The nun never got seats for us who went to public school. She made us public school children stand in the back of the room during instruction.
On the Sunday we made our first Holy Communion, I made a mistake and did not even realize it. After church, she herded us into the classroom and she literally screamed at me in front of the whole class that I ruined the entire first Holy Communion ceremony because I forgot to take off my gloves during the Eucharist. That nun was flat mean! It made an impression on me for me to remember my terrified feelings after all these years.
I never remembered the Priest's coming to visit us. They may have a time or two, but never as much as I knew they visited other families in the neighborhood. Maybe that was a blessing.
So yeah....I can believe Sister Charlotte's story to be authentic. I can believe that her family disowned her. My own sister told me that she knew "what I was" without explanation as to what the "what" was and that I am to leave her alone. She doesn't even answer my phone calls to ask how my mother is doing. She is a cruel person. Her home has a shrine to Mary with pine cones all around it and she wants to replicate the "grotto" in her backyard patterned after the one at Notre Dame University.
That's not saying all Catholics are mean and cruel though. My mother was mostly mild and sweet. She was nurturing when we were growing up. She loves Jesus. She's been catholic all her life.
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