-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Up to 300,000 Spanish newborn babies were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption over a five decade period. The mothers, often young and unmarried, were told their babies had died and were not allowed to see the body or attend the funeral. A secret network of doctors, nurses, priests, and nuns trafficked the babies beginning during the reign of General Franco and continuing into the early 1990’s.
The Catholic Church is closely linked to the scandal, which, under Franco, played a powerful role in Spain’s social services including hospitals, schools, and children’s homes. The system of baby theft continued even after the dictator’s death in 1975.
Lists of would-be adoptive parents were compiled by nuns and priests. The adoptive parents, in many cases, were unaware that the babies had been stolen, they were told that the mothers had given the babies up.
Countless faux burials for the “dead” babies were performed with casket filled with animal bones and rocks. Some hospitals kept frozen baby cadavers to show to mothers as proof their baby had died.
The Catholic Church saw this as a moral crusade, removing babies from sinful unmarried mothers and placing them with those who were more worthy, in the eyes of God. If the Church also turned a profit, so much the better.
It is often argued that without God there are no objective moral values. If stealing and selling babies can be justified as an objective moral action, then there are no objective moral values.
H/T: Pharyngula, Daily Mail, The Guardian, BBC News.
Well said Blouise. The Catholic Church continues to hide its abusers from authorities and that is why the Bishop being indicted in Missouri was a big deal.
The church and stolen babies/pedos etc.: Doesn’t the United Nations have some corollary to the RICO Act?
Angryman, If Santorum and his ilk among the prez. candidates get their way it wont be a mater of some woman falling for birth control propaganda- they simply wont be able to get it:
The candidate later went on to explain that sex between a man and a woman is “special,” and even birth control is “not OK.”
“We’ll repeal Obamacare and get rid any idea that you have to have abortion coverage or contraceptive coverage,” he said. “One of the things that I will talk about that no president has talked about before is I think the dangers of contraception in this country, the sexual liberty idea and many in the Christian faith have said, you know contraception is OK. It’s not OK because it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/21/santorum-ill-die-to-stop-same-sex-marriages/
And all of this was taking place during the period when droves of pedophile priests were also entering the marketplace of Church leadership and ended at about the same time as those prosecutions began gaining momentum. Coincidental? I think not.
I would suggest, based on their actions, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is certain that the afterlife, as they portray it, doesn’t exist.
It has always been, from the selling of Indulgences to the ongoing practice of speeding up the purging process of purgatory by purchasing “special masses” to gain an early release for the departed one’s soul, a money making venture with no fear of punishment … for none exists.
The punishment of the Catholic Church is for the living to decide which is why they try to hide their wrong doing from us.
Great article David. I am continually amazed on how brazen and corrupt the Catholic Church has been and continues to be. There should be a special place in Hell for these people who destoyed children’s lives and the lives of their biological parents.
Swarthmore Mom, Great movie.
The selling of babies still goes on. It is an extremely profitable business. It is a class based business thriving on racism and the desperation of the poor. Most religious institutions will readily help their wealthy patrons take advantage of the poor.
If you look at adoption in the US there is the selling of white or closer to white babies from poor mothers in the US and nations like China, Guatemala etc. to wealthy white couples. There is also surrogacy predicated on the rights of wealthy people to buy the bodies of poor women. Egg donation, an arduous and dangerous procedure, is also done primarily by the poor for the rich. It is extremely profitable for the medical clinics who engage in it.
I see this as one other form of the spiritual sickness afflicting every culture who believes in hierarchy–in this case the value of rich people’s lives and desires are taken as a reason to cruelly abuse the poor.
A good movie to tie in with David’s post is: “Pan’s Labyrinth” Another that deals with selling the babies stolen from the disappeared of Argentina is: “The Official Story”.
Mike S.,
Well said…and if I may clarify the Eastern Orthodox Catholics’ which still follow many Byzantine customs and the Roman Catholic Church used to be one in the same until who got to control the money…..
angryman, that is not all that stinks in Texas. Due to budget shortfalls, prisoners in the Texas prison system will only get two meals a day on weekends. If the crunch continues, which it probably will, that will no doubt extend to full time. This is a false economy, since any correctional expert will tell you that keeping the inmates well fed is, quite literally, a safety issue. When inmates are hungry, there will be security problems for the officers and other inmates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/us/texas-reduces-weekend-meals-for-prisoners.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
All organized religion eventually must either become a racket to sustain itself, or eventually go extinct as did the Shakers. The reason is that
Like a Ponzi new blood must replace those aging and dying. How you attract new members is where the racketeering comes in. This is accomplished by using fear, intimidation or as in this case theft of children. The RCC because of its long history of centralized authority leads the pack, but certainly others such as the Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans and the Byzantine Muslims also were shall we say aggressive in acquiring and retaining membership.
This is a very interesting discussion that Nal has engendered because it highlights how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Originally, I assume that the idea was to find homes for children born out of wedlock to very young and poor mothers. Once down that path it was a short jump to considering those mothers sinners undeserving of parenthood, etc. The profits to be gained from brokering the deal were readily apparent and so it goes.
To believe that any bureaucracy/organization can be morally pure without oversight over a period of time is naive. God save us from the “morally pure” of humanity for they will always screw us over time.
angrymanspeaks, The Edna Gladney Center in Ft Worth houses poor pregnant girls and adopts their babies to affluent families. I guess their business will increase.
No doubt some of these adopted children were later abused by RCC clergy.
Earlier I wrote about how our laws create incentives to steal children in the thread Baby Trafficking: Police Arrest Doctors and Nurses in Baby Selling Syndicate
Hmpf,
Does the Tea Party operate any orphanages? Sounds like the situation in Texas. Get rid of the health care for low income women. What? No clinics; no abortions?
Who you gonna call?
RICK PERRY! “Now, Darlin’, we’re gonna take real good care of your unwanted baby that you were curiously unable to abort. I sure am glad you didn’t fall for that birth control rubbish. Now tell me Darli’; Does this rag smell like Chloroform?
Saw this earlier this week at Pharyngula. ( http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/10/17/catholicism-steals-a-generation-of-spanish-children/ )
In the comments section, readers provide links that show that this policy was followed all around the globe.
David, when you said:
“It is often argued that without God there are no objective moral values. If stealing and selling babies can be justified as an objective moral action, then there are no objective moral values.”,
You nailed it.
Was this Karma at work? 😉 Just kidding ….
nal, a great article…..Not only was Spain involved…but the English had a hand in it as well…..If I recall there was a segment on 60 minutes about 11 or 12 years ago…..
The Lost Children
(CBS) It’s a mind-boggling story, one that sounds more like a bad movie than reality. But it happened. In the two decades after World War II, 10,000 English children were sent to Australia, reports 60 Minutes II Correspondent Bob Simon. Many were mistreated and abused. All were lied to.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/03/24/60II/main40269.shtml
British Child Migration to Australia: History, Senate Inquiry and Responsibilities
I have included a link to murdoch university journal of law which summarizes it fairly well: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v9n4/buti94.html
Nal the messenger,
“A secret network of doctors, nurses, priests, and nuns trafficked the babies beginning during the reign of General Franco and continuing into the early 1990′s”
The messenger of bad tidings is usually associated with those bad tidings, but the appropriate response is to thank you for bringing this information forth into the light of day.
We have that abuse of trust problem in the USA too, so naturally I wonder if the toxins of power have no boundaries?
Mespo, I’m not Catholic but I was brought up (50s) in a small town where everybody ELSE was. In the basement of the school the nuns held Catechism every day and kids were terrified of the nuns and there were reports of all sorts of physical “punishments” that really were kiddie tortures. I was horrified and also frightened by the medieval clothing, the black flowing robes, the stern glares (and I had been fingered by the roughest of the Catholic kids for having killed Christ!). Later, by accidental study, I learned that Catholic girls who were “wayward” were sent to convents far from their homes; I learned that nuns were in charge of orphanages; I learned that priests were supposed to be celibate; I learned this and that and then one day the flashbulb went off. OH! So THAT explains it. But still, I can’t reach the conclusion of “Frankly” because once you find out enough about any of the organized religions, which are, of course, extraterritorial organized “governments,” especially of women, you find the very same stuff, just in different jargon, different ritual, different “god” — to me it doesn’t seem all that outlandish. It’s just what any really insecure “ruler of the universe” does within his own life and his own home, adjusted for the fact that he [they] must control more than his own “brood” by the myth he is using. Therefore it has to be a more awe- and fear-inspiring myth.
While all churches are con games, none have reached the heights of despicable graft and soulless immorality of the Catholic Church. They still want to pretend these events are aberrations, the work of a few misguided or over-zealous locals but eventually these obscenities lead back to headquarters. These people better hope there is no just & moral God to cast judgment upon them in the here after.
Thanks, Nal, for an illuminating article. And to think before reading this, I wondered why the Church has such an uncompromising policy against abortions. Can’t cut down on the supply of adoptable babies now can they?