What is Catholic reacton to Nuns murdering or starving to death infants of unwed mothers?

How do you feel about loud noisy amplified sound systems? Catholic churches should be a good neighbor and not a noisy one. Turn off your loud speakers!! Call Divine Saviour, 90065 and ask Father Marco Ortiz to turn off his noisy sound system!! I have only been asking for 7 years now and he REFUSES!!

As a Catholic, I'd like to point a few things...

1) We need to be careful about jumping on emotional bandwagons before we know the facts. AP news (which is all Yahoo News seems to repeat) likes to jump on sensationalistic stories BEFORE all the facts are known. We need to keep this in mind before we go off "half-******" as they say or on some emotional rant.

2) The evidence, so far, seems appalling. And so, as a Catholic, I do not sanction those past actions or sweep it under the carpet. Maltreatment of children is a terrible thing. This comes from a foster parent who helps to repair the lives of children who have gone through maltreatment.

3) We need to separate, as always, what is done by individuals and what is taught by the faith. It looks bad because the purported violations occurred at a Church ran facility, but that doesn't mean that the Catholic faith teaches its members to act like this. Bad things happen at government ran facilities and we don't condemn the entire government, unless the government actually approved of those actions. RIGHT?

4) Yes, this is another scandal from the past that makes the Church look very bad and strengthens its opponents and those who dislike the Church already.

5) People need to understand - Catholics are not Catholic simply for social reasons OR because the church is perfect or better then other organizations. Catholics remain Catholic because they believe in the origins of the Church, and its doctrines (Theology, Christology, Orthodoxy, Orthoproxy, Histology)

There are no other churches that teach the same thing and have the same origin.

6) One Irish reporter pointed out that this is NOT about the Catholic faith really..but MORE about the Irish culture - a culture which has had an atrocious record of caring for children. The Catholic church ran these facilities FOR the government and the government had oversight. Secondly, ALL records were handed over the Irish government when the home closed in 1962. So the issue is less about the Catholic nuns and more about a culture that maltreated children as a matter of policy. of cultural norm.

7) Before being a home for 'wayward women' (a term from that era) it was a workhouse for children. It is unclear which bodies are from which period of time during the buildings existence.

No doubt many were from the period of time that the Church was in charge, but we can not assume, until we know more.

8) The Church DID file death certificates for each child, even if they were disposed of in a very disrespectful method. This is HOW reporters have attached the number 796 to the number of bodies buried. They haven't counted each body, individually, they are assuming this from the death records kept by the local government.

So the government knew about every death - and did nothing - which again, points to a cultural link.

But why is no one attacking the Irish government over this? Claiming that they mishandled things, turned a blind eye, and calling for the same level of outrage?

9) The Catholic church is fully cooperating with authorities and yet some news agencies are already calling it a 'cover-up' -- WHY? There is no signs of cover-up. Simply because the graves were unmarked?

Death certificates were filed, records turned over to the Irish government in 1960s. The facility was inspected by government officials while it was in use. So where's the cover-up? I realize that cover-ups make for better stories..but in this case, is it true or sensationalism?

10) How many of the children came to the home with ailments vs. how many were perfectly healthy and then died due to maltreatment? -- We don't know. I'm sure both cases occurred. Both sickly children who happened to die shortly after being received into the home, as well as, relatively healthy children who were genuinely maltreated. But we can't emotionally assume it was 100% 1 or the other.

11) Yes, the home was over-run, stretched thin, beyond capacity. So it was badly ran. Did the nuns TRY to do what they could with limited resources OR were the resources available and they cruelly maltreated the "home children" as is being alleged? Were they over ran because society turned their back on these women/children and this was the only place they could go? OR did the church not build sufficient housing for them?

I guess the question is - did the Church make money off of these 'homes for wayward women' OR loose money on them? - to ME, that's an important question. Was it an attempt at charity, even if it was badly ran?

12) With many of these things from the past -- we have to be careful not to prosecute based on today's standards, but look at how things were back then too. It would be easy to be appalled and shocked because today, we are less tolerant of the maltreatment of children, but what about then? Was it better or worse then the alternatives back then?

________

Hopefully the investigation will answer a lot of our questions.

I wouldn't call Yahoo news an reliable source of information being that in many cases they had released articles with false information in the past regarding the Catholic Church. For instance there was an article that the Catholic Church had once ordained women Bishops and Priests which was based upon the testimony of a Protestant woman Bishops who also was an open homosexual. Even the Magdalene homes were exaggerated by the media about the abuses done in Ireland in which there were actually two investigations the first investigation came up with nothing substantial but of course during those times corporal punishment was permitted within society even public schools had corporal punishment the second investigation held much latter on blown out of proportion what the first investigation revealed and of course the media created a scandal for the Catholic Church. Most likely again this article is nothing more than a scandal being created on assumption rather than by facts. Even children of unwed mothers were baptized which makes this article loose it's credibility if these children are raised within a Catholic orphanage they are going to be baptized. Second it was different times it was considered shameful by society for a woman to be pregnant out of wedlock generally these women would be forced to give up their child as was the custom back than and their family would send the woman to a Monastery or Convent and if the identity of father of the child was known he would also be sent by his family to a Monastery. As for orphaned children in Catholic orphanages even back then they would had received a Catholic education as well as religious education. Most likely because I can see through the deception of this article because of lack of funds being Catholic orphanages are funded by donations resulted in a food shortage and lack of medical care which resulted in these children's deaths. The Nuns if I would have guessed wanted to help the children and most likely during the food shortage they given their share to the children which wasn't enough so all they could have done is watch them die. You do realize food and medical care costs something?

This news broke in October last year and was in papers but the anti catholic media waited 8 months later to break the news! Why do this? And like what @robertc said how could they when their records can be found in births and registry office in Galway? You obviously believe everything you read even if it isn't a reliable source. Do you know anything of the way people had to live in Ireland in the 1920s? 1930s etc..? Have you a hatred for the church Jesus established!? Yes. Do you understand what you are talking about? No. I would also like to add as a catholic I have never thought or said atheists are evil, talk about ignorance.

how can they murder them when the names of all were freely available in the births and registry office in galway , also the gravesite was news 40 years ago . and records show that visits by the government agencies found no fault in the running of the homes, even though they were stretched to the limit , receiving children and babies already sick with either , Asian flu, enteritis, diphtheria, and in the 50s. polio arrived on the scene

where were the agnostic atheist charity care centres that these poor mothers should flock to in the context of a country undergoing a great depression?

oh wait there is none... maybe you should open one up?

I have not read one story (including the one you cited entitled Catholic leader seeks probe...) that suggest the children died of anything other than natural causes but I welcome any investigation to clarify the truth.

Shall we wait for evidence and mayBe even a trial before we convict anyone of mass murder?

With love in Christ.

What makes you think that your conclusions are based on any evidence and not just prejudice? Certainly none of the evidence agrees with your claims. In fact, the evidence leads one to an opposite conclusion as yours. God bless!

In Christ

Fr. Joseph

Lynn, for quite some time I have been ranting here on R & S about the horrible atrocities committed by Catholic clergy throughout North America, South America, Europe, and beyond. There are thousands of documented cases of child abuse, yet many Catholics...like Father Joseph...hide their heads in the sand and instead prefer to believe the propaganda their church has fed them (they say that these cases are few and/or haven't been proven). There is a wealth of information...and yes, EVIDENCE...proving that there are thousands of victims of these crimes, but many Catholics still will not believe it. I also cannot understand how any rational person would remain a member of this evil organization. It makes me sick, too.

If it is "like always" they will disavow any knowledge an persecute those who attempt to bring the wrongs into the light.