Cork priest says mourning families facing further hardship due to lack of anniversary masses for loved ones
Speaking to The Echo, Fr Tom Hayes, who is parish priest in Enniskeane said that many people who would have lost loved ones at the beginning of the first lockdown, and who were not able to mark this last year, had planned to instead mark their loved one’s death on their first anniversary.
Mary Corcoran
A Cork priest has highlighted the hardship facing families who lost loved ones in the early days of the initial lockdown last year as they face into the first anniversaries of the deaths of their loved ones without traditional support from their wider communities.
Here s what religious orders have said in response to the mother and baby homes report
Yesterday, Martin had urged religious organisations to come out and make their own apologies.
Some have done so, here are some selected quotes from what has been said so far.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland
As a Church leader today, I accept that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatised, judged and rejected. For that, and for the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise to the survivors and to all those who are personally impacted by the realities it uncovers. Mindful of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls us to protect life and dignity and to treat everyone – especially little children and all who are vulnerable – with love, compassion and mercy, I believe the Church must continue to acknowledge before the Lord and before others its part in sustaining what the Report descr
Three bishops have apologised to the former residents of Mother and Baby Homes The Bishop of Cork and Ross Fr Fintan Gavin is appealing to legislators to make it possible to share birth and baptism records legally with survivors and their families
The Bishop of Cork and Ross Fr Fintan Gavin says at the time the Church contributed to a culture of judgement and secrecy
The Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary says the Church failed in its responsibility to love and cherish them and did not serve with compassion while the Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan says the experience of those who resided in these institutions is a cause of shock and shame and he says he found the details of the high infant mortality very distressing.
The Bon Secours sisters, who ran the mother and baby home at Tuam, yesterday yesterday offered âprofound apologiesâ and acknowledged that children were buried in a âdisrespectful and unacceptable wayâ.
The order said it did ânot live upâ to its Christianity when running the Co Galway facility between 1925 and 1961. The congregation offered âprofound apologies to all the women and childrenâ of the home, to their families and to the people of the country.
Tuesdayâs mother and baby homes commission report âpresents a history of our country in which many women and children were rejected, silenced and excluded; in which they were subjected to hardship; and in which their inherent human dignity was disrespected, in life and in death. Our Sisters of Bon Secours were part of this sorrowful history,â the congregationâs area leader Sr Eileen OâConnor said.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland on Jan. 12 unreservedly apologized to the survivors and those personally impacted by the findings of an investigation into mother and baby homes for unmarrie.