Why Do States Like Ireland Keep Catholicism As An Official Religion.......

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55646902
.. when they are often having to apologise for its atrocities? Surely it's time to disenfranchise the state from religion?

[gness]

I haven’t read everything yet. That will take an age and a bottle or two but the nuns are beginning to apologise. Well some of them. The Daughters of Charity are passing the buck. Nothing new there.

[tamborine]

My sis was an unwed mother in 50s in England. Our parents raised her child so sis could continue college. The church baptised the babe & am godmother; there was no discernment or objection from the church.

[gness]

I’m sure all those less fortunate will be delighted to read that, Tambo.
What on earth is the point of posting that? Are you saying that thousands of others are wrong or mistaken?

Nothing you can post is going to change what the Catholic Church did to destroy the lives of thousands of women and babies. They are still trying to find the bodies of infants. Try to imagine a woman waiting to hear if the bones of her baby have been found in a cess pit in Tuam instead of your pathetic attempts to defend what can’t be defended.

[tamborine]

gness, I cant understand why irish families didnt rear their own babes. As its not the church that stops them.

[ummmm]

Tambo - Irish, young, unwed, being disowned, made to feel shame. We could go on.

[tamborine]

My deceased uncle was Bishop Patrick & he went to Ireland as all Patricks do, to visit some holy monument. He never mentioned the horrors of convents or tried to dissuade my parents from sending us to convents.

[gness]

Oh dear. Yes it was the church that stopped them. Have you no idea why folk were so scared to admit to an illegitimate child in a family? Have you really no idea what happened when the parish priest found out that an unmarried woman was pregnant?
Do you not know what nuns did if the married mother of a young Catholic family died?
Tambo. You must educate yourself about what went on in my country at the hands of the Catholic Church instead of trying to defend it. Do that.
Of course families should have looked after their own but you must look at why they didn’t and try to understand why they didn’t wrong though they were.

[gness]

What is it with convents! They were not convents!
Mother and baby homes. That is not a convent. You do know what a convent is?
These were state funded institutions. Workhouses with one purpose. Run by nuns.

[ummmm]

And their babies taken off them against their will. Wake up one day and the baby has gone. Adopted or killed.

[gness]

Have you seen the interview with the old gardener at one of the homes, Ummmm? He had to put the bodies of babies in his wheelbarrow and tip them into a pit.

[ummmm]

No, I haven't. I've read about the laundries though. Treated like slaves and then stole their babies.

[gness]

There’s a lot to read. It’s not just a case of why didn’t their families take care of them. Why did they have to go to these homes. People need to know what life was like under the Catholic Church in those days. The abuse wasn’t confined to the institutions. It was in every parish in Ireland.

[Khandro]

Perhaps it all says something about the mentality of the Irish, - things like this didn't happen in other catholic communities, for example the Italian Catholics, either in Italy or in the USA.

https://www.italianhome.org/about-italian-home/history/

[Untitled]

the rape and abuse of children and the disabled has taken place in catholic communities all over the world khandro. not the same thing I know but not accurate to say "this sort of thing" doesn't happen outside of ireland.

[Khandro]

Untitled, There are 1.2 billion Catholics in this world, if a microscopically few of them are evil bad apples, it doesn't mean you have to eschew an entire 2,000 year old religion because of it as some are saying on here, using it as an excuse for their loss of faith.

Claiming that it is sufficient reason to leave the Church, is as feeble as saying, "I have discovered my baker beats his wife, so I'm giving up eating bread!" :0)

[Untitled]

I completely agree it is not a sufficient basis to condemn the whole religion and that is important. I do think there is more than enough to condemn the church as an organisation though and plenty of catholics agree. Lots of catholics in my family don't want anything to do with the church/priesthood but still consider themselves to be catholics.

[ToraToraTora]

khandro 09:51, you'd have a point if the bad eggs were not condoned and shielded by the hierarchy. By doing that the religion as a whole supports them.

[Peter Pedant]

o god mainstream AB
117 answers on

The Roman church has never been the state religion of Ireland

[tamborine]

Were any of these children put up for adoption? Or is that against the irish psychi to adopt an illigitimate child?

Convent sanctity grounds might have been used for burials but that doesnt mean babes were murdered by the them & the church.

[gness]

Things like this happened only in Ireland, Khandro?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/catholic-church-apologises-over-forced-adoptions/2808672

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases