I've read about this from other sources...One I remember blamed the nuns and implied they actually killed the babies.....I have searched to where I read that..If I remember correctly it was mentioned in another book....
I think I read that article. I'm not sure what went on there, whether neglect or active homicide were involved. It's dark, sick, and forgot Christ's admonition to "Suffer the children to come unto me."
We don't know what political forces brought by powerful folks or 'respectable' families were brought to bear on the institution, nor what sort of privations were suffered except that poverty was evident in the condition of the children, something many poor folks would do their best to conceal through grooming and upkeep, even if of meager means.
It may be that those children died of malnutrition and disease brought about by a lack of resources (and no antibiotics), more than malice or indifference on the part of the Sisters.
Indifference on the part of the culture itself was evident. These children (and their mothers) were a social embarrassment to the families, to the children's fathers, and carried the stigma of moral looseness for the mothers in a time when the appearance of a virgin bride was expected, even if not so well practiced. Only widows could be single parents and retain any semblance of respectability in the society of the day, regardless of economic status. The morality of the father, if known, was apparently not so much an issue, implying that women were culturally considered to be in control of what liaisons occurred, which may not have always been the case.
Even the lack of interment amenities howls of doing the best with no resources (catacomb burials once being perfectly acceptable internment, despite the nature of the space), and to be understand how this came to be, we must try to see what happened through the lens of that culture and era, rather than the fundamental revulsion and horror we see through the lens of this time and culture.
Still, I grieve for those who were treated thus, regardless of why.
Yet many who read that piece in the Times will use it to justify, rather than see the horror of the millions who have been shredded and sold as parts or disposed of as medical waste.
