CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2021 / 04:28 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops have welcomed an Irish government report on 20th century homes for unmarried mothers and babies run by local governments and often operated by religious orders. They have apologized for the harsh treatment of unmarried mothers and their children, calling this a betrayal of Christ.
“Although it may be distressing, it is important that all of us spend time in the coming days reflecting on this report which touches on the personal story and experience of many families in Ireland,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said Jan. 12.
“The commission’s report helps to further open to the light what was for many years a hidden part of our shared history and it exposes the culture of isolation, secrecy and social ostracizing which faced ‘unmarried mothers’ and their children in this country.”
He urged continued outreach to those whose personal testimony was central to the report.
“We owe it to them to take time to study and reflect on the findings and recommendations of the Report, and commit to doing what we can to help and support them,” he said. “We must identify, accept and respond to the broader issues which the report raises about our past, present and future.”
The Irish Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes released its report Jan. 12. The six-year inquiry concerned 14 “mother and baby” homes and four “county homes” in the time period of 1922 to 1998. The report examines individual homes and individual witness testimonies as well as providing historical context for the actions of the women, their babies’ fathers, their families, government officials, and religious leaders involved.
“Women who gave birth outside of marriage were subject to particularly harsh treatment. Responsibility for that harsh treatment rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families,” said the report. “It was supported by, contributed to, and condoned by, the institutions of the State and the Churches.”
“However, it must be acknowledged that the institutions under investigation provided a refuge – a harsh refuge in some cases – when the families provided no refuge at all,” it added.
About 56,000 women and girls, as young as 12 or in their forties, were sent to these institutions. The county homes were government-run and -operated, while the mother and baby homes were generally run with government support by Catholic religious religious orders, technically under the authority of their local bishop.
About 57,000 babies were born in the homes over this 76-year period. There was a significant mortality rate, with 15 percent of babies dying before they left the homes. The high mortality rate was known to authorities and recorded, but there was no outcry and little effort to address these problems. The commission report said the high infant mortality rate was the institutions’ most “disquieting feature.” Before 1960, the institutions appeared to have “significantly reduced” survival prospects.
Some county homes had “appalling physical conditions,” as did the homes at Tuam, in County Galway, and Kilrush, in County Clare. Other homes were “considerably better.”
While poor living conditions were common in Ireland, poor sanitary conditions in the group homes had “much more serious consequences.” There was oversight and inspection reports were critical of conditions, but maximum capacity figures were not set for mother and baby homes until the 1940s. These figures were not enforced, because they would have massively reduced the homes’ capacity.
Archbishop Martin welcomed the report, saying, “as a Church leader today, I accept that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatized, judged and rejected.” He “unreservedly apologized” to the survivors and all impacted for the enduring hurt and emotional distress.
“As Church, State and wider society we must ensure together that, in the Ireland of today, all children and their mothers feel wanted, welcomed and loved,” Archbishop Martin said. We must also continue to ask ourselves where people today might feel similarly rejected, abandoned, forgotten or pushed to the margins.”
“Mindful of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls us to protect life and dignity and to treat everyone – especially little children and all who are vulnerable – with love, compassion and mercy, I believe the Church must continue to acknowledge before the Lord and before others its part in sustaining what the Report describes as a ‘harsh … cold and uncaring atmosphere’,” Martin said.
While some 200 women who gave birth died while living at mother and baby homes, the report indicated that they likely received better maternal care than most Irish women through the 1960s or 1970s, as most gave birth at home with the aid of a midwife or even an untrained aid. Many Irish homes lacked running water. At the same time, county hospitals discriminated against unmarried women and would not admit them to maternity wards until the 1960s.
The report attributed the end of the homes to massive improvements in living conditions, changes in religious and moral attitudes, as well as gradual improvements like free post-primary education, the establishment of legal adoption in 1953, and an allowance for unmarried mothers in 1973.
Providing historical context, the report said that such homes were not particular to Ireland, at the same time the proportion of unmarried mothers admitted to these homes in the 20th century was “probably the highest in the world.” The group home system was believed to reduce the women’s risk of entering prostitution or committing infanticide. The system also purported to advance their moral reform.
“Some pregnancies were the result of rape; some women had mental health problems, some had an intellectual disability. However, the majority were indistinguishable from most Irish women of their time,” said the report.
In the first decades of the time period concerned, most women admitted to the institutions were domestic servants, farm workers, or unpaid domestic workers in their family homes. In later decades, women were clerical workers, civil servants, professionals, and schoolgirls or post-secondary students.
Many of these pregnant women had failed to secure support from their families or the fathers of the babies and were destitute. Some women entered the homes to prevent family and neighbors from learning they were pregnant. Some were forcibly brought to the homes by family members. There was no evidence that pregnancies among under-age women were routinely reported to police. There is no evidence Church or state officials forced them to enter, but most women “had no alternative,” the report said.
Most were financially supported in the institutions by the local government health authority. Many women were cut off from the world and assigned a “house name.”
Both Irish men and women were more likely to be dependent on their parents into their early twenties. Families tended to have many children and would be less able to support an unmarried daughter’s baby. An out-of-wedlock birth could destroy marriage prospects for both the woman and her siblings.
Irish men were also reluctant to marry, especially to marry young. The commission said it is possible that fewer men married their pregnant girlfriend than they did in other countries. Land inheritance customs and economic necessity meant land passed only to one son.
It was often impossible for pregnant women to prove paternity claims, and compared to other countries a low proportion of Irish men acknowledged paternity or provided financial support. Before 1950, many fathers were themselves financially imperiled, working low-wage jobs or unpaid jobs for family farms and businesses.
Most children born in the institutions were too young to remember, but some stayed after their mothers left through age seven. Legal adoption, which the report called a “vastly better outcome,” was not available until 1953, with farming communities still proving less likely to adopt. Children often ended up in industrial schools or were boarded out.
While the Catholic hierarchy evidently had no role in the day-to-day operation of mother and baby homes, religious congregations who opened such homes required the local bishop’s permission. Local authorities often deferred to the views of these religious orders or to the views of the local bishop.
“The Catholic church did not invent Irish attitudes to prudent marriages or family respectability; however, it reinforced them through church teachings that emphasized the importance of pre-marital purity and the sexual dangers associated with dance halls, immodest dress, mixed bathing and other sources of ‘temptation’,” said the report.
There is no evidence the religious orders running these homes made a profit, said the report, which added: “At various times, it is clear that they struggled to make ends meet.”
The report suggested that the mortality rate was higher than the Irish norm either because of the high risk of infection, or because the children born in mother and baby homes came from less privileged backgrounds than other women who gave birth out-of-wedlock but had healthier pregnancies and healthier babies. Women who gave birth in the homes had more stressful lives and worse pre-natal care and nutrition. There was a failure to implement appropriate hygiene standards at the homes and to educate mothers about hygiene. Almost all the homes lacked the staff needed to perform such education.
Infant mortality rates at the homes peaked in the 1940s, a time of economic difficulty due in significant part to the Second World War.
Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin welcomed the report’s publication, saying such reports “bring to light the profound injustices perpetrated against the vulnerable in our society over a long period of time – against women and children whose lives were regarded as less important than the lives of others.”
“The silence which surrounded this shameful time in the history of our land had long needed to be shattered,” he said. “The pain of those who were hidden away must be heard; those once largely without a voice now can speak clearly to our world, and we need to listen, even when what we hear pierces to the heart.”
“A genuine response is required: ours – as a Church and a society – can only be a full apology, without any reservation. There should never have been a time for avoidance and facile solutions,” he said. “This country, the Church, our communities and families are better places when the light of truth and healing are welcomed. May the Lord’s compassion be the touchstone of our response. May the light of Christ bring healing to all.”
Bishop Tom Deenihan of Meath also apologized, saying: “While a lack of resources and an intense social poverty go some way towards contextualizing the period of this report, the lack of kindness and compassion, as identified by the commission, is also clear.”
Residents and children born in these institutions suffered from “unacceptable conditions” and inadequate assistance, and they have been “unfairly burdened with an unwarranted but enduring sense of shame,” he said.
The long-closed Tuam Children’s Home in County Galway became notorious after the discovery of an unmarked mass grave for children. Some 2,219 women and 3,251 children had been at the home, and 978 children died—80 percent before their first birthday.
The home was operated by the Bon Secours Sisters in from 1925 to 1961. In addition to unmarried mothers and their babies, it also accepted children of destitute and homeless families as well as children with special needs.
It is likely that many children who died are buried in the memorial gardens, but while there are records of their deaths there is no record of their burial places.
The Bon Secours sisters offered “profound apologies.” They said that the children who died at the home were buried in a “disrespectful and unacceptable way,” the Irish Times reports.
Sister Eileen O’Connor, the local superior of the Bon Secour Sisters, said Jan. 12 that the report “presents a history of our country in which many women and children were rejected, silenced and excluded; in which they were subjected to hardship; and in which their inherent human dignity was disrespected, in life and in death. Our Sisters of Bon Secours were part of this sorrowful history.”
“We failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the home. We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed. We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt,” O’Connor said. “We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry.”
Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam also welcomed the report and asked forgiveness for “the abject failure of the Church for the pain and suffering visited on those women and their children.”
“The Church of Jesus Christ was intended to bring hope and healing, yet it brought harm and hurt for many of these women and children,” he said. “Many were left broken, betrayed and disillusioned. For them, and all of us, these revelations seriously tarnished the image of the Church.”
The Galway County Council owned the Tuam home and was responsible for the residents, and the sisters operated it. The diocese had no administrative role. However, Neary emphasized, the diocese had a pastoral role, “in that the priests of Tuam parish served as chaplains.”
“Today, how can we even begin to comprehend the raw pain and psychological damage of family separation and its devastating consequences on loving mothers and on the emotional development of their children?” he asked. “Must we ask as to the whereabouts of the fathers? Had the Church been more forthright in acknowledging the responsibility of the men who fathered these children, the outcome for many young mothers and their children would have been very different indeed.”
The diocesan archives on the home have been shared with the commission, but the archive does not have information on the living conditions. Neary lamented the absence of burial location records, saying the burials have “understandably, caused the most outrage.” He welcomed any progress in uncovering the full truth.
Dublin’s Regina Coeli hostel, founded by the Legion of Mary, appeared to show some ability to break with the trends of Irish society. The full report’s 21st chapter says that the hostel was “the only institution that assisted unmarried mothers to keep their infant” before the 1970s, the Iona Institute reports.
“Although the mothers who kept their babies were a minority until the 1970s, the proportion was undoubtedly much higher than for any other institution catering for unmarried mothers”
Venerable Frank Duff, the layman founder of the Legion of Mary, wrote a 1950 memorandum to the Department of Health about encouraging women to keep their children. Duff opposed committing children to Ireland’s industrial schools, which have also been the target of historical inquiry for poor conditions and abuse of their residents.
The hostel received no regular state support. At the same time, babies of women at the hostel suffered a high mortality rate, which peaked in the 1940s, and other reports have questioned the conditions there.
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This article really makes an impression on me.
it is absolutely wonderful and uplifting………… cant we all do likewise as this blessed priest did..
It is bewildering that JPII, JohnXXIII, and PaulVI are canonized, but Fr Doyle is not. The entire Catholic world needs to become more familiar with Fr Doyle, especially at this time. His cause needs to be furthered with all dispatch. A much better video presentation of him needs to be produced than the one which has aired on EWTN.
Thanks for this article. Makes one wonder why so many saintly people who worked in the trenches of life (good, solid, and faithful priests, sisters and ordinary catholic men and women) are ignored in the designation of sainthood. Maybe to answer my own question is that the ordinary saints around us are humble and see doing God’s work as a natural course of their life. As a result they are not recognized as saints.
“It’s bewildering that JPII, JohnXXIII, and PaulVI are canonized…”
Not bewildering, so much, perhaps, as laughable and insulting. Canonising P6 is Stockholm Syndrome gone mad. Anyone less Saintly is hard to imagine; not that JP2 was much better.
JP2’s sausage-factory canonisations have devalued the practice. Whivh is a great pity.
As Fr. Doyle was an Irishman and a Jesuit, the only devotion to him that matters is that of Irish Catholics and Jesuits. Anyone else’s opinion of him is of little consequence.
As for the CC in Ireland: given the abominable behaviour of the Irish clergy and religious, it is almost a miracle thzt there are any Catholics left in Ireland. Trust the CC to do, that centuries of persecution could not. To destroy the faith of millions is a most impressive achievement. That the Irish bishops have not resigned, shows that they have no clue to how destructive their “episcopal ministry” has been.
I am delighted that Mr. Kenny is in Ireland as he is very likely a witness to the faith there in the way Paul VI meant it.
What a beautiful holy priest, imitating the sacrifice of Our Lord.
The same is true if other chaplains in war, like the holy Fr. Vincent Capodanno, who sacrificed himself first as a Marylnoll Missionary and then sought to serve as chaplain to US Marines in the Vietnam War, because he knew in his heart that they were suffering and abandoned, he called them “the poorest of the poor,” and he wanted these men to know that God loved them and had not abandoned them. Capodanno would habitually sneak aboard helicopters to go wherever the Marines were fighting, because he wanted to be with his flock, the men he called “his Marines,” when they needed him most. His heroic service attracted all men, to the point that Marines who were not even Catholic would go to hear Mass said by Fr. Capodanno. His friend and fellow chaplain, the Presbyterian Minister Eli Takesian, has recounted that Fr. Capodanno was “the most Christ-like man I have ever known…when you looked into his eyes, you felt as though you were looking into the eyes of Jesus himself.”
Very nice Chris.
Author mentions … “clerical crimes when Vatican Summit on the Protection of Minors meets this week in Rome.”
HOMOSEXUALITY, HOMOSEXUALITY, HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE PRIESTHOOD AND LEADERSHIP OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH is the chief culprit, sin, and crime which needs to be focused upon in the upcoming Rome Summit. Why are those who write about the sexual perversion and abuse scandal in the Church afraid to mention the core SIN???
The evidence has been piling up for decades, and yet our leaders and writers of the Church scandal fail to mention the CORE SIN..!!!
The sexual abuse scandal WILL REMAIN when fear of rooting out the base cause of the scandal, and cover-up remain intact.
I am convinced, by the heroic priest extolled, that the author has the very best intentions for Christian virtue in the Church.
I see the point raised by Phil, and I agree, and think that a heroic priest like Fr. Doyle would voice the same.
Perhaps we should not lament the loss of “the Church’s standing in society,” because we be mislead ourselves with such aims. Let us all remember that men like McCarrick and Wuerl and Maciel and Maradiaga and Mahony, all have betrayed the commandments of The Lord Jesus, while devoting their energy to “the Church’s standing in society.”
We should instead be concerned with the Church’s witness to society, and our standing in the eyes of God.
@Chris in Maryland
As the author of the piece, I don’t disagree with what you are saying. The standing of the Church in society is not the ultimate aim, and for sure there are ways of trying to boost that standing that are wrong. But being virtuous and also working to rehabilitate the image of the Church are not mutually exclusive, in fact one is a natural consequence of the other.
Also, I am writing from Ireland where we have lived with scandals in the Church for over 25+ years now. The effect on the Church has been devastating. Morale amongst priests is low, vocations have dried up, and one diocese reported today that it has even run out of money to pay priests. There are certainly other reasons for this which are beyond the scope of the article, but the impact of the sexual scandals is the biggest driver here. And in terms of evangelisation, precisely because of those scandals there are so many barriers to overcome that one simply cannot get a hearing. After 25 years of scandals, for a sizeable chunk of the population here, Catholicism is synonymous with abuse and its cover-up. There is a perception that abuse and cover-up are the “normal” state of Catholicism rather than a gross aberration.
The antidote to this is authenticity. We have to be authentically Catholic ourselves, and we have to promote the authenticity of those like Fr Doyle who, from my own experience of speaking about him, impresses and attracts even those who are alienated from the Church.
The holiness of which you speak must be the holiness of Christ. There is no redemption without the Cross and priests seeking to make reparation must be willing to allow themselves to be broken and poured out like Christ – to be afflicted as He was. Consider the oft neglected wisdom of Sheen on this matter – words never once spoken to me in seminary.
When “Satan sits enthroned” (Rev 2: 13) at the end of time, Our Lord said, he would appear so much like Him “that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived” (Mt 24: 24). But if Satan works miracles, if he lays his hands gently on children, if he appears benign and a lover of the poor, how will we know him from Christ? Satan will have no scars on his hands or feet or side. He will appear as a priest, but not as a victim. We recognize fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, by family resemblances. In no other way will Our Lord know us and we Him. Our preparation for the day of His coming must accordingly consist of deepening our affinity with the Priest-Victim.
”In this mortal frame of mine, I help to pay off the debt which the afflictions of Christ still leave to be paid, for the sake of His Body, the Church.” Colossians 1: 24
Venerable Fulton Sheen
It actually, is a ‘GOOD’ that these outrageous SINS committed by TRUSTED CLERGY (esp. those in ‘high’ places) have come to light; although the damage done to The Church is incalculable at this point! Yet, Jesus tell us to ‘forgive’ — IF WE (also ‘sinners’) want to be ‘forgiven’! For me, I pray the ‘St. Michael’s Prayer for the Priests that I know. St. Michael, The Archangel: Defend us in this Day of Battle. Be our SAFEGUARD against the wickedness and snares of the devil, we humbly pray; and do thou, oh Prince of the Heavenly Host, by The Divine Power, cast into Hell, Satan and all the Evil Spirits who wander now throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls — most especially, the souls of our ‘Shepherds’ (our Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and our Pope)!
We are doing a profound disservice to ourselves, no doubt prompted by the zeitgeist absorbed with pathological obsession with all things libidinal simultaneously consumed with a hatred for Christ and His Church, to allow our sight to be turned from the ontological reality of the priesthood to the sins of men. Gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, dejection, despondency, vainglory and pride have held center stage since Adam and Eve, Cain and Able – today’s first reading at Holy Mass provides us yet again an opportunity to reflect upon the existential reality which is ours individually.
The fake “news” of the day of the day is that sin is “news” – let alone among the clergy class of any confession [ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Southern-Baptist-sexual-abuse-spreads-as-leaders-13588038.php ].
One recalls the fourteen year old Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face having her epiphany regarding the denizens of the clerical caste during her pilgrimage to Rome.
Apparently it wasn’t pretty.
That was enough for her to offer her life for the welfare and conversion of priests.
I’d go so far to say that what is really scandalous is not so much the filthy behavior of men, but the mindlessness of an episcopate who ignores the spiritual and moral welfare of its priests, and then persists in pretending that they are not failing in their duty to address the dire situation. That is the real news. They turn to Freud, Kinsey and Masters and Johnson – and lawyers! – while neglecting to appeal to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. An ecclesiastical structure which is unwilling [not unable] to tackle the crisis which has been virulently in place for at least sixty years and fix it, instead of spend all its energy on self-deception and denial, is fraudulent and laughable. It renders itself without credence.
The need to preserve “face” to the world which surpasses the need to restore men to grace is the penultimate scandal here, and no one is speaking of it. Luke 18:8 comes to mind, “When the Son of Man returns will He find any faith left on the earth?”
Unlikely if He turns up at this week’s sex sin symposium on Bergoglio Hill.
As a Carmelite, I thank you for mentioning St Therese in being disgusted with the behaviour of the priest on a pilgrimage and vowed to give her life up for the souls of the priests. She became a victim of love and is a inspiration to myself to do so. It is greatly needed. It just might have been her who began the charism of the Carmelites to pray for priests perpetually.
Nothing will change until the Masonic errors are purged from the Church, which means repudiating the heresies and blasphemies contained in the approved documents of Vatican II. There will be no “holiness” unless it is once again agreed upon by the members of the Church and her hierarchs what actually constitutes the true faith of God on Earth. So long as the titular “Pope” flies around signing documents which repudiate the Catholic Faith, you cannot count on “holiness” from the Pope, prelates or priests or from the greater mass of the “faithful”, what’s left of them. Does anyone want to be Catholic again? Does anyone want to follow Christ in His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church? Does anyone even know anything about what the Catholic Faith is anymore?
“Does anyone even know anything about what the Catholic Faith is anymore?”
Yes.
After reading Murder in the 33rd Degree I do understand your concerns.
Yes.
And I hunger and thirst for more. More knowledge of the Catholic faith. More holiness. More life in Christ.
There is, I believe, a real LIGHT for Ireland and for the rest of the world, taking place in a small monastery there where a priest is called to offer Adoration specifically for the spiritual renewal of priests. See the book “In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart, Reflections of a Priest at Prayer” (sorry, don’t have my copy next to me to remember exact title.) Perhaps these priests are the spiritual sons of Fr. Doyle. It is heartening and healing to read this book; a certain reminder in these tragic times that Jesus has not abandoned His Church, His children. Read it and be renewed in our own resolve to bring our sorrows before Christ in His Real Presence: only HE can truly resolve the situation in our Church and our world.
Sadly nothing will be done at yhe summit. The name says it all. Still trying to say the crisis is about children instead of homo heretics devastating the Church. It was organized by Rabbit Hole Cupich after all.
I would like belong to this reparation for sins of cardinals Bishops and priests. My prayer and penance I know is shallow. Isn’t it more than offering rosaries, consecration of mass, masses and Holy Communions in reparation for this cause specifically
My name is Amy. I would like to live a monastic life. Age 54. Making reparation for sins of the clergy and religious. Love tradition and latin mass.
Can someone help me fulfill my desire.
Thank you .
Amy, you can do an online search for
Catholic religious orders women older
and you’ll get a number of places to look.
There’s an organization called the Institute on Religious Life that has a webpage showing a lot of different religious orders, with a description of each (including age range) so that you could look through and see if one of them is what you seek:
https://irl.solutiosoftware.com/womens-vocations
Or your diocese might have a vocations director who could help you.
I first read about Fr. Doyle in a wonderful article in the Irish Echo. It was accompanied by a photograph of a young Fr. Doyle and Blessed John Sullivan in Ireland. I recall in the article a burglary at the home of Fr. Doyle’s parents, only for the burglar to apologise and leave when he realised whose family home he had entered. So many mourned Fr. Doyle.