Well as it turns out a Father Fintan Monaghan, a spokesperson for the archdiocese in which this tragedy took place, had a response to this story:
“I suppose we can’t really judge the past from our point of view, from our lens. All we can do is mark it appropriately and make sure there is a suitable place here where people can come and remember the babies that died.”
Yes of course we cannot judge past events based on modern levels of revulsion can we?
In that case we really have no right to judge the American slave owners who fought a war to preserve their right to subjugate human beings, or Nazis who felt that genocide was an appropriate response to their antisemitism, or how can we possibly prosecute criminals thirty years after they murdered somebody, I mean it was such a long time ago and all.
Remember the nuns ran this home for unwed mothers from 1926 to 1961, which was a year after my birth. That is NOT ancient history!
Not only that but the bodies were first discovered by two boys in 1975, yet the response by the church was to have a priest pray over the mass grave and then cover it back up.
That is fucking reprehensible!
And I am not alone in my anger.
Here is what reporter for the Guardian, Emer O'Toole, had to say about this revelation:
Do not say Catholic prayers over these dead children. Don't insult those who were in life despised and abused by you. Instead, tell us where the rest of the bodies are. There were homes throughout Ireland, outrageous child mortality rates in each. Were the Tuam Bon Secours sisters an anomalous, rebellious sect? Or were church practices much the same the country over? If so, how many died in each of these homes? What are their names? Where are their graves? We don't need more platitudinous damage control, but the truth about our history.
Atheist or not, to that I only have to say "Amen!"
(H/T to the Friendly Atheist.)
