A group of my friends got together recently to view the movie, Philomena. It is a powerful movie, and as much as we enjoyed it initially, several days later we were still thinking about it, still wondering if it could be true. Were Catholic orphanages in Ireland selling the babies of unwed mothers to American families from 1948-1962? Yes they were, and before you jump to the terrible conclusion that I did, let me explain.
There was no abortion in Ireland in this time period, and the sin or all sins, both for the mother and her family, was to have a child out of wedlock. Many families sent their pregnant daughters to Catholic homes for unwed mothers to have their child and then have the child adopted out. All the adoptions at this time were done through Catholic organizations, as Ireland was at this time predominately Catholic. Culturally, the unwed mothers were shunned by society. So they went to a home for unwed mothers, had their child, and agreed to have the child adopted, and never speak of the event. Most mothers did this, but the hole in their heart was huge. Some went looking for their children years later, only to hit dead ends, as many of the children were given false names on their birth certificates. The children on the other end often faced the same dead end.
As portrayed in the movie, and in interviews with Philomena Lee herself, the most horrible part of the adoption process was that children were kept in an "orphanage" where their mothers served as indentured servants (repayment to the nuns for helping them through the birth of their child) and were allowed to see them an hour a day. This situation often lasted for several years, before the child was actually sold to an American family. It's one thing to take a baby at birth and put him into an adoptive family, but it's quite another to have them bond with their young mother, only to be taken from her several years later. It's really heartbreaking
The nuns were definitely doing a service for young unwed mothers, but the anguish for the mothers who lost their children must have been extraordinary. Both mother and child faced dead ends when looking for one another. Yes, most of these children went off to families and had a better life than they would have had in Ireland, but the way the separation took place was inhumane.
Of course things have changed now, in the age of the internet. Anyone can eventually find anyone. However, thousands of mothers and children were never able to reunite, before death came to one or the other. The Irish process of having children adopted in America was also prominent in other European countries after WW11. Young girls got pregnant by a soldier who never returned, and the mothers and babies were taken in by Catholic organizations. Many I'm sure were not as uncaring as depicted in the movie Philomena, but this was not unique. I found dozens of articles by children looking for their mothers, who describe similar circumstances. The movie was not a knock on the Catholic Church, but on the mores of the time, which made pregnancy out of marriage such a sin. (for Catholics and non Catholics). I want to believe that most nuns felt they were doing the right thing, the moral thing. Thinking has changed today, and even though the church still sees out of wedlock pregnancy as a sin, it would be handled differently. I guess the human race is making some progress.
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