Maria deserves our thanks for such a forgiving letter

MARIA from Co Kerry (‘Discussion on mother and baby homes is a vital one’, Letters, Irish Independent, January 13) deserves the nation’s thanks and goodwill for her very forgiving and informative letter.

It was published on an appropriate date: the feast day of St Hilary of Poitiers (circa 315-367) who as bishop of Potiers introduced Greek doctrine to western Christendom.

This was a time when the truth was important to the Orthodox Church.

Maria ends her missive: “I think the discussion that is taking place... is vital for younger generations... and that women will never be made feel ashamed for having a child.”

Indeed, a child is a gift from God, is it not? It is also time the Irish branch of the Roman Catholic Church admitted to the indoctrination and brainwashing of young men and women from the time of Catholic emancipation in Ireland.

Sex was dirty and unnatural. Priests with not even an iota of knowlege of the female body, let alone their own – or the physical or psychological needs of the human body – denied the beauty that God has given each and every person without favouring a single one.

The treatment of other people in mother and baby homes, orphanages and industrial schools run by nuns, brothers and priests arose from novices being filled with what can only be described as ‘a false ideology’ that they alone were chosen by God.

Contact with their families was restricted, as the Church was now their family.

Isolation from other human beings lessens love, which in turn lessens humanity.

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia