IRELAND
Independent Catholic News (UK)
March 5, 2017
Archbishop Michael Neary, Archbishop of Tuam, focused on the discovery of children’s remains buried at the former Mother and Bay Home in Galway, during his homily for the First Sunday of Lent today. He said: “I am horrified and saddened to hear, through the Commission’s interim statement of 3 March 2017, that quite a large quantity of human remains were discovered on this site… This points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers…This points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers.”
The full homily text follows:
Each year, on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church puts before us, in the Gospel passages She has chosen for us, the accounts of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. We are invited to enter into these scriptural texts and to acknowledge how they mirror what is going on in our own lives, and to avail of the opportunity to be changed for the better and transformed by them during the forty days of Lent.
This is true of the texts before us this year too, but I am sure you will understand if I do not reflect with you on the Gospel we have just heard proclaimed but, rather, if I speak for a moment on the news which emerged from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation on Friday morning.
I was greatly shocked, as we all were, to learn of the extent of the numbers of children buried in the graveyard at the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. I was made aware of the magnitude of this situation by media reporting and historical research. I am horrified and saddened to hear, through the Commission’s interim statement of 3 March 2017, that quite a large quantity of human remains were discovered on this site which, on analysis, matches the timescale of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. This points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers. Albeit not unexpected, I was very upset as I read the Commission’s findings made public on Friday, 3 March 2017.
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