Nuns to be given 'sole ownership' of new National Maternity Hospital

The Religious Sisters of Charity group, who helped manage Magdalene laundries across Ireland, is set to be given "sole ownership" of the new €300m National Maternity Hospital.
The hospital's relocation from Holles Street to the St Vincent’s hospital campus, which is currently owned by the religious group, is due to take place by 2021. To part-fund the move, the Department of Health will raise money through the sale of the current taxpayer-owned hospital on Holles Street in Dublin 2.

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/health/nuns-given-sole-ownership-new-12905923 

Mother and baby home survivors call for charges of genocide against Irish state

A group of mothers who were former residents in mother and baby homes in Ireland wrote to the Irish Attorney General Máire Whelan calling for formal charges of genocide to be brought against the Irish state. The charge is made on the basis that the mothers did not give valid consent for the children to be adopted.

Between the late 1940s and early 1970s, 2,200 Irish infants were sent for adoption to America. There have been claims that birth and death certificates of adopted children were falsified in order for the adoption process to take place, claims that are currently under investigation by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission who are investigating the behavior of 18 of said homes as part of an independent inquiry.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/mother-and-baby-home-survivors-call-for-charges-of-genocide-against-irish-state 

The Sisters of Charity presided over abuse. They must not run a maternity hospital

In 2009 the Ryan report into child sexual abuse in state-funded, church-run institutions was published, costing the Irish taxpayer €82m. It uncovered decades of abuse endured by children in the ostensible care of Catholic organisations including the Sisters of Charity. This is the order of nuns that will be given ownership of the €300m state-of-the-art new National Maternity Hospital by the Irish government, They will be the “sole owners” of the taxpayer-funded facility

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/20/sisters-of-charity-abuse-maternity-hospital-irish-state 

The tireless determination of a modern Irish hero

Sometimes the darkest story has to be brought to light, no matter how sad or distressing that story might be or how uncomfortable it makes people feel afterwards.
When I visited Cambodia almost 15 years ago, I took in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum near the centre of Phnom Penh. This nondescript secondary school, in the middle of the city, was transformed into a grotesque concentration camp in the 1970s and as I walked around it my eyes filled with tears.

http://ciarantierney.blogspot.co.nz/2017/04/the-tireless-determination-of-modern.html

Uncover the Mystery of a Murdered Nun in Netflix's The Keepers Trailer

After the huge success of (and controversy over) Making a Murderer, Netflix is bringing us another chilling true-crime tale in the form of The Keepers, the true story of the shocking murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a Baltimore nun. Her murder has never been solved, and almost 50 years later this seven-part series looks to investigate the seemingly political reasons for her murder.
The Catholic Church has faced more than its fair share of scandals throughout the years, and this case is no different. Baltimore residents described Sister Cathy as a “spirit of compassion and kindness,” and it seems as if her disappearance may have had something to do with information she had on a sexual scandal within the church, which is not surprising, but is profoundly scary and sad. Hopefully, through this series and further investigation, justice will prevail.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/04/uncover-the-mystery-of-a-murdered-nun-in-the-keepe.html 

Anger over nuns' role in National Maternity Hospital

A deal to build a new Irish maternity hospital on land controlled by an order of nuns has been described as "an outrage and an insult to all women". The Irish Labour Party reacted angrily to reports that the nuns' firm will have "sole ownership" of the new state-funded National Maternity Hospital.
The Sisters of Charity are major share-holders in the firm that owns the land. The order has so far failed to pay its share of a compensation scheme for victims of institutional abuse.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39643164# 

How a global board games giant exploited Ireland's Magdalene women

It’s almost impossible to think of my childhood in 1980s Dublin and not to think about Elsie. Elsie, my great aunt, was hilarious, caring, kind hearted, and good natured. But there was a strange, childlike innocence about her. She was, I would later figure out, institutionalised by a totalitarian regime that had corruption and cruelty built into its DNA.
When we normally think of the Magdalene laundry scandals, the era most of us tend to associate it with is the Catholic theocracy of the 1950s. Black and white photos of women with scowls on their faces and nuns in white robes. It’s something we recognise from films. But not something we associate with modern Ireland.

http://littleatoms.com/penance-industry 

Dublin faces protests over hospital role for Catholic Church

Dublin: Public pressure mounted today on the Irish government over plans to give ownership of a new 300- million-euro maternity hospital to a Catholic religious order mired in historical abuse of women. More than 60,000 people have signed a petition and a number of demonstrations have been organised against the decision, which involves the controversial Sisters of Charity.
The order still owes three million euros towards a state-sponsored redress scheme over the ‘Magdalene Laundries’, where unmarried mothers suffered decades of physical and psychological abuse under conditions of forced labour.

http://medicaldialogues.in/dublin-faces-protests-over-hospital-role-for-catholic-church/ 

Vatican requires nuns to manage hospital assets in accordance with Canon Law

The Irish State is planning to give a €300 million National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity. The Minister for Health has said that “only doctors and other healthcare professionals would make decisions about women’s health in the planned new Hospital.”
However, the Sisters of Charity are a Catholic religious order whose primary loyalties and obligations are to the Holy See and Canon Law. This obliges them to manage their assets in a way that reflect the evangelical witness of their mission.

http://atheist.ie/2017/04/hospital-assets-canon-law/ 

Priest defends Tuam nuns, says unmarried mothers sterilized in other countries

A prominent Catholic priest in Ireland has defended how the church handled the issue of unmarried mothers in institutions like Tuam in Galway, where 800 children have no burial records.

Father Padraig McCarthy was writing in the influential Catholic publication “The Furrow.”
He stated other countries used sterilization which was mandatory in some. He stated women were sent to asylums in many countries for being “feeble minded” and “promiscuous.”

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/priest-defends-tuam-nuns-says-unmarried-mothers-sterilized-in-other-countries# 

Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care, inquiry finds

Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children, Ryan report states.  Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today. The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.
The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims 

Striking Photo of Sleeping Street Kids and Passing Nuns Goes Viral

Priests, nuns, pastors, and other religious entities always preach about helping the poor and those in need, feeding the hungry, helping the sick, etc. Most will also tell you that contraceptives and other modern methods of family planning are bad, even ‘evil’, because life is precious and that every person deserves to be born – and we’re not talking about abortion here but the conception of the child.
That’s already a given – yet do they always practice what they preach?

http://buzz.definitelyfilipino.net/articles/2017/04/striking-photo-of-sleeping-street-kids-and-passing-nuns-goes-viral/