People always seem to forget about time frames when they encounter information like this. There's no doubt that this was a terrible thing, no matter how those infants died. And I suppose that it's natural when something like this comes to light, people want to be able to blame somebody. But it happened 1927-1961. I'm sure most of the people responsible are dead, so what good does it do to try to find somebody to blame? And to whom does the blame rightly belong? To the Vatican? To the Catholic Church? To the Irish Government? Or to all the people of Ireland who allowed this terrible thing to go on under their noses?

MG's usual conspiracy theory is, as usual, preposterous. Local church organizations are not required to send money to the Vatican, since the Vatican is self-supporting. Parishes and religious orders use the money they earn, to cover their own expenses. Dioceses do assess parishes a percentage for diocesan expenses.

And Stim's tie to the hypocrisy of modern anti-abortionists is a bit anachronistic, I'd say. I'd agree that hypocrisy is alive and well in the so-called "pro-life" movement, but modern pro-lifers are unlikely to be in favor of burying dead babies in a septic tank.

As in any crime, the people to blame are those who committed the crime. And all of us are at least partly complicit to the extent to which we failed to prevent the crime or stop it from continuing. But before we point the finger of blame for such a crime, perhaps we need to examine how much our parents or grandparents and aunts and uncles were involved in these things. Maybe we can deny responsibility because we aren't Catholic or we aren't Irish - but what if our ancestors were Irish and Catholic?

-Joe-