It is certainly not an unbroken tradition in the catholic church..i never saw it until last ten lr so years bur i am glad to say i have helped to replace it with nonoffensive gestures. Anyway good article by susan lohan..google irish baby scandal. She and others say nuns were paid per mother and child what a working man perhaps supporting ten children made. Lus they had gardens and livdstock. Must be confirmed. An analysis of where the money went is urgent. The nuns prob lived very simply. Was it siphoned off? Where did it go. Children died and there might have been sufficient money coming in to make this criminal.