Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor

It is an agonizing story, and a book has been written about it and a movie was also recently made about it.  The story I am referring to is the story of Philomena Lee who at the age of 19 gave birth to a baby boy, out-of-wedlock, at the Sean Ross Abbey in County Tipperary, in Ireland.  If you are unfamiliar with the story, Philomena became pregnant out-of-wedlock after being raised in a convent after her mother died at the age of 6.  Her father kept 3 boys at home and put Philomena and her two sisters in the convent because he was unable to care of all of them.

After she left the convent at age 18, she became pregnant and was sent to the Sean Ross Abbey where her son was born and three years later, was adopted and moved to America.  If you have seen the movie or read the book you know what happened to her son, who she never saw alive again.  But the story of Philomena is not the main focus of this article.  Philomena was one of thousands of Irish women who were forced by religious beliefs and societal pressures to hide their “sin”.  However, what happened to some of the children who did not get adopted?  Continue reading “How Many Children Died to Protect the Honor of the Catholic Church?” →