I have just finished reading a compelling and unflinchingly difficult article in the New York Times called “The Lost Children of Tuam.” I have been avoiding reading this article for several days. I thought that I knew all I needed to know about the fate of children born out of wedlock in Ireland. I’d read Philomena and seen the movie. How wrong I was.
Except for a woman with a heart and incredible determination, this article could not have been written. However, this story, which lays out how church and state can destroy the lives of children and their marginalized mothers, reminds me that we are living in a time when organized religion and its state sponsors are doing the same thing. We know it. We see it, but we keep silent. It’s going on all over the world and often in the name of religion.
If we just look at our own government, we see that any policy that can impact children and their families who really have no voice is being dismantled. Be it health, nutrition, housing, education, immigration, taxes, it’s the low hanging fruit. And many in positions of power call themselves Christians. The good people of Ireland saw themselves as special Christians, and look what happened.
KATHLEEN ROONEY
Concord