An unforgiving church

 

Subject: An unforgiving church.

The revelation this morning of over 150 children found buried in a mass grave, not in Rwanda or some far-flung corner of our primitive world but in the grounds of a disused Catholic children's home in Scotland. It's not suggested these children were massacred but that proper tribute was not paid to their young lives by affording them with a proper burial and a notification of their lives with a grave.
It seems incomprehensible that a religious order would have been found guilty, yet again, of ignoring the most basic human instinct, that of respect. Once again it took a newspaper investigation to uncover what had gone on as one of the pillars of the Establishment was found wanting. It is once again an example of the dark secrets hidden behind the doors and the smokescreen of officialdom since the trail of these short lives and their resting place must have been known in the places where these events are recorded. Once again it is an example of the gulf which divides segments within our society and like the infamous Indian Caste system, people born outside the social norms of our society receive different treatment and are afforded a different level of respect.

The Catholic Church in its treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland and the severance of their children is now common knowledge and it seems a part of the Celtic inheritance that Scotland or at least the Catholic Church treated the "wee bairns" in their care with the same disdain. The Catholic Church school known for its often harsh treatment meted out by some nuns towards their charges, is as if It was part of the child's redemption that they should be punished. 

The sins of the parent were vested on the child, particularly if the mother had been unmarried, a  sin of the first magnitude before God. Sinning must be purged by abstinence. In this case the abstinence of love or the understanding of compassion. One  of the tenants one would have expected of a person dedicated to holy orders and a deep understanding of scripture.
Perhaps a too literal understanding is at fault as Christ struggled to forgive, so the church was unforgiving.