Residential schools.

[Woodbutcher]

They just found the remains of 215 children on an old residential school property in Kamloops.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... al-school/
Fucking Jesus freaks are guilty of genocide. These kind of happenings make me wish for an alien encounter for humanity.

[NineBerry]

You don't know what weird religion those aliens would try to sell

[JimC]

They may not have killed them directly, but it seems they are clearly guilty of coving up deaths and illegal burial, at least...

[Cunt]

Happenstance brought me to a meeting between a young lady from a remote northern community, and one of the old men who was an equipment operator during the 60's scoop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop)

It was a weird thing, to have such human faces on things. Hearing the old guy talk about his work. His perspective, that he was repairing and flying aircraft. That their job was (partly) bringing kids to school. Knowing some of what had happened since.

It's a very tough thing to think about. It's a lot easier when there aren't real faces, and you can think of 'back then' or some other way of pretending we are somehow beyond it.

[Hermit]

There are some similarities between the Canadian residential school run by the Catholic Church and the 'mother and baby' house run by Catholic nuns belonging to the order of the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. It was shut down in 1961. In 2013 a Tuam resident, Catherine Corless, collated the death certificates of 798 children who died at the Tuam home. In all but two cases, she could not trace their burial records. After considerable publicity the grounds on which the mother and baby house was examined.

Between 2016 and 2017 excavations revealed significant quantities of human remains in a large underground structure which was divided into 20 chambers. The original purpose of those chambers remains unknown, but the structure within which they were built was itself built inside a large, decommissioned sewage tank, it is unlikely they were meant as burial chambers.

The final report on the scandal was heavily redacted. The Irish government rushed a law through the Dáil that made it legal to keep much of it secret. Earlier this year the Sisters of Bon Secours offered their "profound apologies" about the way they disposed of the bodies, admitting they "did not live up to our Christianity when running the home".

Tuam was not the only site where babies, infants and some mothers disappeared. More than 900 children died while resident at Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork, but it is still not known where the vast majority are buried.


Nuns and children at Bessborough House in Cork, where more than 900 children died

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54693159

[Svartalf]

They just found the remains of 215 children on an old residential school property in Kamloops.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... al-school/
Fucking Jesus freaks are guilty of genocide. These kind of happenings make me wish for an alien encounter for humanity.

Taking indigenous kids from their families was one of the Great Crimes of Canada
Louis Riel is another...

[Svartalf]

You don't know what weird religion those aliens would try to sell

What religion, they want only to Serve Man.

[Svartalf]

They may not have killed them directly, but it seems they are clearly guilty of coving up deaths and illegal burial, at least...

Bad hygiene and no real medical care, insufficient food, likely lack of proper heating and clothing in winter, victorian English style discipline... it's murder but in name.

[Svartalf]

There are some similarities between the Canadian residential school run by the Catholic Church and the 'mother and baby' house run by Catholic nuns belonging to the order of the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. It was shut down in 1961. In 2013 a Tuam resident, Catherine Corless, collated the death certificates of 798 children who died at the Tuam home. In all but two cases, she could not trace their burial records. After considerable publicity the grounds on which the mother and baby house was examined.

Between 2016 and 2017 excavations revealed significant quantities of human remains in a large underground structure which was divided into 20 chambers. The original purpose of those chambers remains unknown, but the structure within which they were built was itself built inside a large, decommissioned sewage tank, it is unlikely they were meant as burial chambers.

The final report on the scandal was heavily redacted. The Irish government rushed a law through the Dáil that made it legal to keep much of it secret. Earlier this year the Sisters of Bon Secours offered their "profound apologies" about the way they disposed of the bodies, admitting they "did not live up to our Christianity when running the home".

Tuam was not the only site where babies, infants and some mothers disappeared. More than 900 children died while resident at Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork, but it is still not known where the vast majority are buried.


Nuns and children at Bessborough House in Cork, where more than 900 children died

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54693159

Is that what is now known as the Magdalenes siters scandal?

[Scot Dutchy]

The Magdalene Laundries was another incredible story. It is not amazing why the church is losing its power so quickly as people to day dont accept any stories the church puts forward as an excuse and luckily with Covid the churches will be empty after restrictions are lifted. There is also a massive shortage of priests (TG!). Ireland should not be considered a catholic country any more. In my wife's family in Ireland two nieces are in a relationships, which are not even civil ones, and have kids. Totally unthinkable 40 years ago. The next Irish Census which is due in April 2022 will show a rapidly changing country.

[Hermit]

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

There are some similarities between the Canadian residential school run by the Catholic Church and the 'mother and baby' house run by Catholic nuns belonging to the order of the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. It was shut down in 1961. In 2013 a Tuam resident, Catherine Corless, collated the death certificates of 798 children who died at the Tuam home. In all but two cases, she could not trace their burial records. After considerable publicity the grounds on which the mother and baby house was examined.

Between 2016 and 2017 excavations revealed significant quantities of human remains in a large underground structure which was divided into 20 chambers. The original purpose of those chambers remains unknown, but the structure within which they were built was itself built inside a large, decommissioned sewage tank, it is unlikely they were meant as burial chambers.

The final report on the scandal was heavily redacted. The Irish government rushed a law through the Dáil that made it legal to keep much of it secret. Earlier this year the Sisters of Bon Secours offered their "profound apologies" about the way they disposed of the bodies, admitting they "did not live up to our Christianity when running the home".

Tuam was not the only site where babies, infants and some mothers disappeared. More than 900 children died while resident at Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork, but it is still not known where the vast majority are buried.


Nuns and children at Bessborough House in Cork, where more than 900 children died

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54693159

Is that what is now known as the Magdalenes siters scandal?

No. That was yet another instance of systematic cruelty perpetrated by committed Christians. You can read up about what became known as the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland scandal here.

All of those instances are illustrations that wherever and whenever religious institutions were powerful, they did not shy from being unrelenting forces of repression and oppression lacking mercy and forgiveness. They also demonstrate that it is not necessary to go back to the crusades, the inquisition or the schismatic religious wars of the more distant past to realise that this is what they fucking well do.

The attitude persists among some of today's evangelical Christians. Yesterday I stumbled across this tweet, dated 10:09 AM · May 19, 2020:

To the asshole who read my comments about having a daughter as the result of rape and then DMd me and said we are both damaged goods and she's an abomination of God who should have been aborted.

You can follow what happened next by clicking on these two links:
https://twitter.com/itsalwayswednes/sta ... 1307721728
https://mobile.twitter.com/gparselle/st ... 8234093569

The more I read about this sort of shit the less I think the book's title by Christopher Hitchens, "Religion poisons Everything" is overly hyperbolic. In many cases even supposedly charitable works by religious institutions turn out to be stupendously cruel.

[Cunt]

I wish I could send around a movie to you guys (I can) about an irreligious example.

Too recent for comfort, this one has an acquaintance of mine relating a story of wanting to be a mother. She was instead sterilized, because with all the raping, they didn't want their lives complicated by her getting pregnant.

I am also acquainted with some of the nurses who lost their roles as caregivers in these institutions. Some who think that the institutional model was MUCH more sensitive and caring to the needs of this vulnerable population. I like to think they are wrong, but it is tough to keep that up, with the current care model having so many gaps.

It isn't 'religion'. It isn't 'way back then'. At least not exclusively. Sterilizing rape victims because it would be awkward to care for their children is the kind of decision that many modern caregivers could still face.

[Hermit]

I wish I could send around a movie to you guys (I can) about an irreligious example.

Too recent for comfort, this one has an acquaintance of mine relating a story of wanting to be a mother. She was instead sterilized, because with all the raping, they didn't want their lives complicated by her getting pregnant.

I am also acquainted with some of the nurses who lost their roles as caregivers in these institutions. Some who think that the institutional model was MUCH more sensitive and caring to the needs of this vulnerable population. I like to think they are wrong, but it is tough to keep that up, with the current care model having so many gaps.

It isn't 'religion'. It isn't 'way back then'. At least not exclusively. Sterilizing rape victims because it would be awkward to care for their children is the kind of decision that many modern caregivers could still face.

You are right. Most institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are not run by churches, so you cannot sheet the blame for their abuses on people who are formal members of religious institutions and acting in their name.

In my opinion most asylums are run by psychiatrists who can do whatever they see fit. There is no outside control of what they do, and next to nobody outside cares. Additionally, financial neglect of the weakest members of society, those who used to be officially labelled "idiots and imbeciles", is easiest to get away with. That is why mental asylums are usually underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded and in a shocking state of dilapidation.

The criminal abuse in religious institutions, particularly those affiliated with the Catholic Church, is different. It is not based on budgetary expediency or lack of control. It is founded on ideology. The victims I cited earlier were not even "idiots and imbeciles". They were "fallen women" and their "bastard offsprings". The cruelty was intentional. In Mother Teresa's case this was explicit. The misery and suffering she facilitated was meant to bring her victims closer to God. Millions of dollars she received in donations were not spent on healing the sick or on palliative care. They were sent to the Vatican. Teresa was declared a saint for, well, for being saintly. She was deemed to be doing God's work.

The underlying religious rationale for this cruelty still has currency right now among Christian fundamentalists. I quoted a tweet reporting an instance of it here:

To the asshole who read my comments about having a daughter as the result of rape and then DMd me and said we are both damaged goods and she's an abomination of God who should have been aborted.

You can follow what happened next by clicking on these two links:
https://twitter.com/itsalwayswednes/sta ... 1307721728
https://mobile.twitter.com/gparselle/st ... 8234093569