Posted on 06/04/2014 9:51:45 PM PDT by boatbums
Almost 800 babies and children were buried in a mass grave in Ireland near a home for unmarried mothers run by nuns, according to new research Wednesday which throws more light on the Irish Catholic Church's troubled past.
Death records suggest 796 children, from newborns to eight-year-olds, were deposited in a grave near a Catholic-run home for unmarried mothers during the 35 years it operated from 1925 to 1961.
Historian Catherine Corless, who made the discovery, says her study of death records for the St Mary's home in Tuam in County Galway suggests that a former septic tank near the home was a mass grave.
The septic tank, full to the brim with bones, was discovered in 1975 by locals when concrete slabs covering the tank broke up.
Until now, locals believed the bones mainly stemmed from the Great Irish famine of the 1840s when hundreds of thousands perished.
St Mary's, run by the Bons Secours Sisters, was one of several such 'mother and baby' homes in early 20th century Ireland.
Thousands of unmarried pregnant women -- labelled at the time as 'fallen women' -- were sent to the homes to have their babies.
The women were ostracised by the conservative-Catholic society and were often forced to hand over their children for adoption.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The development is a yet another damning disclosure of a Church-run institution in Ireland following almost countless revelations of abuse and neglect at Catholic-run schools or institutions in recent decades.
“The recently discovered death records for St Mary’s show the 796 children died from malnutrition and infectious diseases, such as measles and TB.”
And the haters want to make this into a scandal. Sad.
Records indicate that the former Tuam workhouse’s septic tank was converted specifically to serve as the body disposal site for the orphanage.
Respectful of the unmarked grave in their midst, residents long have kept the grass trimmed and built a small grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary.
What is REALLY sad is when the bigots want to pretend that this kind of a scandal didn't really happen and to speak about it is just being "hateful". Did these babies/children HAVE to be starved to death (that IS what causes MALNUTRITION - malnourished)?
Orphans in a poor country being taken care of by the Church is a “scandal”? That the poor are with us is reality. That the poor in a poor country have not enough food is reality.
20 or so deaths a year is shocking here and now. In the depression in Ireland, not so much.
Bigot is a nasty phrase, are you calling me a bigot?
So the nuns purposely starved the babies to death? Do you want to claim that.
That is the problem with this AP article - their bias forms the structure of this article. They don’t accuse the nuns of starving babies (they never could and be honest) - but they let credulous readers like you make the conclusion for yourself.
Another point - Thank God we don’t have nuns doing this work now. Its SOOOO much easier to simply abort the babies and, well, flush them down septic systems. (that’s sarcasm)
An average of 23 deaths a year seems excessive. I wonder how many people were housed there at one time? Was infanticide considered preferable to abortion? It will be interesting to see what the inquiry shows.
“An average of 23 deaths a year seems excessive.”
Really? Based on what data?
“Conservative Catholic teaching at the time denied children of unmarried parents baptism and therefore burial in consecrated lands.”
What’s your spin on that?
With no health service and deep poverty, the number of children working class parents had to watch die was horrendous. Infant mortality soared. In 1926 in Ireland 120 of every 1,000 babies under the age of one died compared to six of every 1,000 today.36 As late as 1949 over 50 of every 1,000 babies died before the age of one. One child in 16 born in 1949 did not live to see her or his fifth birthday. Diarrhoea and enteritis were the biggest killers of babies. Tuberculosis and other preventable and treatable diseases swept through the slums, killing older children. All these children died of poverty.37
http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj91/horgan.htm
Spin? What are you trying to say there bramps?
Bigot is a nasty phrase, are you calling me a bigot?
That you are defending evil.
“That you are defending evil.”
What “evil” am I “defending” bramps?
“They hid the remains of the children in a septic tank. Hideous.”
Wrong. Try again.
Respectful of the unmarked grave in their midst, residents long have kept the grass trimmed and built a small grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary.
- See more at: http://www.shepherdstownchronicle.com/page/content.detail/id/517531/Irish-church-under-fire-over-children-s-mass-grave.html?isap=1&nav=5134#sthash.kdeb4zsP.dpuf
So?
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