Reaction to Report on Mass Grave of Babies at Home Run by Nuns, PDF format
The Roman Catholic institution in Ireland operated Mother and Baby Homes, for unmarried mothers and their babies, during the twentieth century. About 56000 women and girls were sent to these homes from 1922 to 1998, and during this period about 57000 babies were born in them. But things were not as they seemed. There was a very dark side to these homes for unmarried mothers.
Children born in them were sometimes put up for adoption without the mothers’ consent. Others were actually sold. And the mothers were allegedly told it would be sinful for them to seek to find their children. Many children were also subjected to physical and sexual abuse in the homes at the hands of priests and nuns.
And then there were the deaths.
And the graves.
In April 2017 I wrote an article entitled Another Mass Grave of Babies Who Died Under the “Tender” Care of Nuns. This mass grave had come to light in Tuam, County Galway, in the Republic of Ireland. It was estimated at the time that it contained the remains of almost 800 babies. Today it is believed there were over 970 children buried there. The site had been an Irish Mother and Baby Home for unmarried mothers and their babies, operated by a Roman Catholic order of nuns called the Bon Secours Sisters. Treatment of mothers and children in this home was harsh. I suggest that this article is read in conjunction with this present one.[1] Go to:
https://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Another-Mass-Grave-of-Babies.pdf
In 2015 the Irish government launched a commission to investigate these things, and in January 2021 it released its findings.
The Reaction of Irish Roman Catholic Leaders
Roman Catholic bishops appeared to welcome the report, and “apologised” for the way unmarried mothers and their children had been treated in the homes, calling it a betrayal of Christ. But just how genuine were their expressions of sorrow? Not very.
Romish archbishop, Eamon Martin of Armagh, attempted to deflect attention away from his false “Church”, at least partially. After the report’s release he said, “Although it may be distressing, it is important that all of us spend time in the coming days reflecting on this report which touches on the personal story and experience of many families in Ireland. The commission’s report helps to further open to the light what was for many years a hidden part of our shared history and it exposes the culture of isolation, secrecy and social ostracising which faced ‘unmarried mothers’ and their children in this country.”[2]
Hold on a minute! Read that again. “All of us” must spend time reflecting on the report? “A hidden part of our shared history”? Why should all Irish people have to do this, when it was Rome’s priests and nuns who were guilty? And why is this dark chapter part of their “shared history”, as if the people were as guilty as the priests? And then to say that the report exposed “the culture of isolation, secrecy and social ostracising which faced ‘unmarried mothers’ and their children in this country”, when – again – this was Rome’s culture, which was inculcated into the Roman Catholic Irish by their priests! If the people went along with it, they did so because they were a priest-ridden nation, under the iron heel of their priests. They behaved badly towards those mothers because this is what their priests taught them to do, both by precept and example.
Reinforcing this cop-out, the archbishop said, “as a Church leader today, I accept that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatised, judged and rejected”. No, the “Church” of Rome was not merely “part of that culture”, it was the leading influencer of that culture! One must bear in mind just how much of an intensely fanatical Roman Catholic country the Republic of Ireland was during that period. The so-called “Church” was everywhere. It was all-powerful. It controlled the lives of the Irish people with an iron fist. If its nuns and priests treated unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children harshly, the people copied them, because their “Church” taught them to do so.
Martin “apologised” to the survivors and all those affected. But this means absolutely nothing. As I wrote in the previous article:
“We do not believe, however, in this modern fad for ‘apologising’. Everyone is doing it: the pope ‘apologises’ for the Rwandan genocide, and ‘apologises’ to the Waldenses for Rome’s massacres of them; politicians ‘apologise’ for this, that and the next thing; etc. It is all a farce. It is simply not enough to say, ‘We apologise’, and expect that to be the end of the matter. If the nuns called a press conference and said, ‘We apologise that almost 800 children [now believed to be over 970 children] were discarded in unmarked graves by us’ – does this belated ‘apology’ remove the sin of what was done? A feeble ‘we’re sorry’ is not true repentance! Besides, one can only apologise for what one has done personally – not for what was done in the past by others! No, an ‘apology’ is a mockery, a farce, a sop designed to pacify people.”
The Reaction of the Bon Secours Nuns
As for the Bon Secours nuns, who ran the Tuam Children’s Home, they offered “profound apologies”, saying the children were buried in a “disrespectful and unacceptable way”. The mother superior of this nest of nuns, Eileen O’Connor, said on 12 January 2021 that the commission’s report “presents a history of our country in which many women and children were rejected, silenced and excluded; in which they were subjected to hardship; and in which their inherent human dignity was disrespected, in life and in death. Our Sisters of Bon Secours were part of this sorrowful history.”[3] Again, hold on a minute! Just like the archbishop quoted above, this mother superior subtly implies that although the nuns of her order were guilty, they were merely “part of this sorrowful history”. But where was the unmarked mass grave of children found? On the nuns’ property! They were not merely “a part” of this disgraceful conduct, they were the ones who carried it out!
She went on to admit that it was her religious order which “failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the home”, and that the nuns “failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed.” But then she again expanded the blame beyond her order to the broader society, saying, “We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt.” Unless she meant they were part of the religious system of Rome – and it is highly doubtful this was her meaning – she must have meant they were part of the broader Irish society. So yet again she was saying: Yes, our order of nuns was guilty, but only as it was part of the broader Irish society as a whole. What a lie.
The Reaction of the Roman Pope
In August 2018 the Roman pope Francis I, after meeting with eight abuse survivors, asked forgiveness from those who had been abused by priests and by nuns, in particular people who had been in Ireland’s mother and baby homes. “Collecting up what they told me, I would like to place these crimes before the mercy of the Lord, and ask forgiveness for them,” he said. “In a special way, we ask forgiveness for those abuses committed in different types of institutions run by religious men and women [i.e. monks and nuns] and other members of the [Roman Catholic] Church, and we ask forgiveness for the cases of work exploitation to which many minors were submitted.”[4]
He also prayed: “We ask forgiveness for the children who were taken away from their mothers, and for all the times when the single mothers that tried to look for their children that had been taken from them, or to the children who had been taken away from their mothers, were told that it was a mortal sin.”
There it is again: “We ask forgiveness.” Empty words, spoken by one who was not in Ireland on behalf of guilty ones who were not, themselves, repenting. And empty also, when his feeble words are compared with what actually happened. Mothers and babies were treated with harshness, there was physical and sexual abuse, babies were forcefully taken from their mothers and sold, and those who died were buried in a mass grave – and all this Jesuit deceiver says is, “We ask forgiveness.” Hollow, hollow words. True repentance comes from the heart, is an abhorrence of the sin committed and a turning away from it with detestation. Francis’ flat, “We ask forgiveness”, is simply not true repentance.
One of the survivors, Paul Redmond, who met with the Roman pope, said he believed Francis was “genuinely shocked” to learn about what had gone on in the homes, because he “lifted his hands to his head in shock”.[5] How sad that this man could not see through the stage theatrics of the Jesuit pope. It is an easy thing to lift up your hands in apparent shock and horror, but it reveals nothing at all about the state of the heart. Francis, as pope of Rome, could not possibly have been ignorant about these things. His “reaction” was all for show. And sadly it had the desired effect.
Conclusion
I will conclude with essentially the same words with which I concluded my previous article on this issue:
To my Christian brothers and sisters: pray for the Roman Catholic women and girls who, through blind zeal or to please parents, or for any other reason, join a convent and become nuns! In doing so, they give themselves in utter devotion to this evil religious system which calls itself “the Holy Catholic Church”, but which God’s prophetic Word calls by another name entirely: “the Great Whore”, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth” (Rev. 17:1,5). Rome’s nuns are not holy women of God – they are sinful women, just as all women (and men) are, and they enter into those convents with the same sinful natures they had before they went in. And within those convent grounds and behind those walls, for many centuries, all kinds of dark deeds have been committed. It is no different today – as these underground chambers containing dead babies’ remains testify. Oh, it is true enough that today, in this age of ecumenism, one seldom sees nuns in those black habits they used to wear. Many of them are dressed in modern clothing and work in schools, hospitals, and other places, openly and publicly. But the heart remains the same, and only the Lord Jesus Christ can change the heart. Pray for the nuns, as well as the priests, of Rome, that the Lord in mercy may yet draw many out of that iniquitous religious system which holds them in bondage.
And I urge any Roman Catholic who may read this to turn away from all the superstitions and devilish doctrines of your priests, bishops, and pope! This is an antichristian religion which, instead of teaching the truth of God as found in His Word, the Bible, teaches for doctrines the commandments of men (Matt. 15:9). Forsake it, and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ! He alone can break the chains of this religion which holds you in such bondage! Come to Him by faith, for He is the Friend of all who do so, and will never cast them away (Jn. 6:37)! He is full of mercy and compassion, and unlike the pope of Rome Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matt. 11:30). You have been lied to your whole life long, but Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life! (Jn. 14:6). Come to Him, and find rest for your soul! (Matt. 11:28).
September 2021
Shaun Willcock is a minister, author and researcher. He runs Bible Based Ministries. For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below. If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ email list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.
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ENDNOTES:
[1]. Another Mass Grave of Babies Who Died Under the “Tender” Care of Nuns, by Shaun Willcock. Available as a free download:
https://www.biblebasedministries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Another-Mass-Grave-of-Babies.pdf
[2]. Catholic News Agency, January 16, 2021. “As Ireland examines mistreatment of unwed mothers, Catholic bishops apologize for ‘abject failure.’” www.catholicnewsagency.com.
[3]. Catholic News Agency, January 16, 2021.
[4]. Catholic News Agency, August 26, 2018. “Updated: Pope meets with survivors of Irish mother and baby homes.” www.catholicnewsagency.com.
[5]. Catholic News Agency, August 26, 2018.