Wikipedia tells me that in 2009, British author Martin Sixsmith wrote a book titled The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, about the forcible separation of a mother (Philomena Lee) and child (Michael A. Hess) by the nuns of an Irish convent during the 1950s, and the subsequent attempts of the mother and child to contact one another. The book was adapted into the 2013 film Philomena, starring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan (as Sixsmith), and written by Coogan and Jeff Pope.

Has anybody read the book or seen the film?

All of these stories, not just the story of the Tuam home, have engendered all sorts of anti-Catholic diatribes all over the Internet, even here. The stories, for the most part, are all true - and they are indeed horrible stories. There's no doubt the Church was involved, and involved deeply in this scandal. But is the Church the only party to blame? The mother and baby homes and industrial schools were located all over Ireland. Some were owned by government entities (local or national), and I believe some were owned by the Catholic Church. Many were managed by Catholic religious orders, some by others. Were they completely staffed by nuns or brothers, or were there lay people on staff? Apparently, there were doctors and nurses on the staff or working as consultants for many of these institutions.

Some of the young people who went to these institutions were sent by courts and other government agencies, and some were sent by their own parents.

So there's no doubt that this was a horrible situation and that it was widespread, institutionalized cruelty. But who's to blame? Who's NOT to blame? Can you blame the Vatican and send UN representatives to arrest the Pope and lead him off in chains and neatly resolve the whole matter? Can you blame the bishop and the nun who offered to contribute to a memorial to these 706 children? [how appallingly shocking!!] If you blame "The Church," just exactly whom are you blaming? After all, almost everyone in Ireland was Catholic. All the priests and nuns came from Irish parents, not from the Vatican. All the doctors and nurses and judges and government officials and the people who signed the death certificates came from Irish parents. Now, there are a lot of people in Ireland who no longer belong to "The Church," but does that mean that they have no share in the blame for this and that it is only current members of "The Church" who deserve to be denounced?

Maybe we should blame England. I know a lot of Irish-born American priests and nuns who are now in their 60s to their 90s in age, and they like to blame England for everything that's wrong in Ireland.

But this happened in an Ireland that was newly free from English rule, and able finally to do things the way they should be done. This newly independent nation of Ireland had the chance to do things the right way - why didn't they?

Well, I don't know who's to blame. And before you enlightened British atheists go shouting about what right do I as an American Catholic to condemn the Irish people for all this, let me remind you that I'd rather join with the priest and accept that "times were different then." I know full well that my country still suffers from its history of racism - that the cost of racism will linger for centuries, even though "times were different then." I think we do need to study the atrocities of the past and learn from them. I see little value in placing blame for events that happened fifty years ago, or (in most situations) for making reparation payments to the descendants of the victims of such atrocities. The time for blame and the time for reparation is right after the event, not fifty years or a century later. But still, we must study these events honestly and learn from them, considering how easily we ourselves can be responsible for similar events in our own time.

-Joe-