Nothing flippant about my "Hogwarts" reference at all, Jim. I think that the Harry Potter series is a very good study of the process of making and evaluating moral decisions. Its approach is far more rational and far less judgmental than yours.

How can you say there has been only "one serious published work in a century and a half" on the Irish Famine? A quick look at Amazon shows over 20 pages of book listings on the subject, and many of those appear to be serious works.

As for cremation, this link (click) indicates that there are at least five crematoriums in Ireland, instead of the two you speak of.

As for killeens (cillín), they are for babies who have died without baptism, not without the "last rites." Unbaptized babies are not members of the Church, so they do not receive a church burial. There is, however, no reason why they cannot be buried with prayer and respect. Seems to me that burial in a separate graveyard can serve to honor the special grief that comes with the death of a child who died in infancy. Pope Benedict declared over a decade ago that the mostly-forgotten concept of "limbo" was flawed theology, so the assumption then is that unbaptized infants go straight to heaven when they die.

So, with all the misinformation you give us, what are we supposed to be able to believe of what you have to say? Maybe you'd be better off spending less time condemning and more time researching.

-Joe Offer-