Musket, this story of 800 babies thrown into a septic tank spread all over the world, but yet most of those babies were buried in earthen graves and the death count was 22 per year. So far, no septic tank has been found.

There are statements above in this thread about how babies were starved to death by the nuns who ran these institution, but there were only ten babies who died of malnutrition over 36 years - and no information how that malnutrition occurred.

I would think that any religion that has "love thy neighbor" and "preferential option for the poor" as basic teaching, ought to do an excellent job running institutions such as the mother and baby homes and the industrial schools and the Magdalene Laundries - but they didn't, and that is a scandal and a shame. From what I've read, the environment for the young people in these institutions was harsh and uncaring, very much like basic training in the U.S. Army was for me. For the most part, there was no systematic cruelty, but the clients of these institutions were treated as having done something wrong that they had to pay the price for - very much like they were in a penal institution.

Such an environment is fertile ground for abusive personalities, and there are records of many employees in some of these institution who were abusive.

But for the most part, the stories are not as dramatic as the demagogues would have you believe. And the stories are the same all over the world during that period. The workhouses of England were just the same, and England also had mother-and-baby homes that were similar to those in Ireland. Sinclair Lewis wrote of poor people in the U.S. who were treated similarly.

And it wasn't all bad. After the last of Magdalene Laundries closed in 1996, many of the remaining residents moved to convents and were cared for by nuns for the rest of their lives.

But it's true that if the Catholic Church believes what it preaches, it should have done a far better job with the institutions under its care, and it failed to do that.

Hello, my name is Joe Offer.
I am a Roman Catholic. I was brought up Catholic, and it is the religious tradition where I feel at home.
Yes, I know it's fucked up, and it's not perfect like your life; but it's an essential part of my life and it's where I feel at home.
Get over it.

-Joe Offer-