Medical Malpractice - Should the Catholic church provide reparations for survivors of the Magdalene Asylum laundries?

Should the Catholic church provide reparations for survivors of the Magdalene Asylum laundries?

For those that don't know, the Magdalene Asylums were institutions in Ireland where young women accused of immoral behavior (often becoming pregnant out of wedlock) were locked up and forced to work in the laundries as slave labor for the catholic church. Outside businesses paid the church to have their linens cleaned, and the girls received no money and were forbidden from leaving until the nuns decided to let them leave, or a male family member demanded their return. Many remained their whole life. The women received no compensation, and many suffered lasting health problems, like arthritis, as early as their teen years from being overworked in poor conditions. The last one was open until 1996. Should the church have to provide some reparations to those who were forced to work in the asylums? After all, the church made a lot of money off of it. Shouldn't the people who were forced to do all the work be entitled to some compensation? There's a movie on it called the "Magdalene Asylums" and the several main characters in the story are based off women who told their story for the documentary "Sex in a cold climate." One girl was taken from an orphanage when she came of age and brought to the asylum. When she asked why she ended up in the asylum, she was told the orphanage directors thought it best, because she was pretty and would be a temptation for young men. Another woman in the documentary was sent by her family after she was raped by a male cousin and told other family members. She believed she was sent away so the family could get rid of her before she told anyone else and brought shame on the family. She was there for years until her little brother came of age, found out where she had gone, and came to get her. Whoops, the movie is actually called "The Magdalene Sisters."

Public Comments

Yes. And reparation for all those survivors of sexual abuse by priests.
I have no problem with that. Have you heard the song "The Magadelene Laundries" by Joni Mitchell off her 1994 "Turbulent Indigo" CD. That's how I had heard of it, and I was RAISED Catholic. That was truly a shocker to me the way this ugly era of Church history was suppressed all those years. Just as bad as the molesting priests if you ask me. FTR I also think black Americans should get reparations for 300 years of slavery, too, but I'm not holding my breath on that one...
Then all Catholics that owned slaves from the 1600's through 1800's should as well.
Yes they should,and for the rest of the disgusting things they've done besides that one typical case
Depends on the laws of Ireland. If these asylums were legal, then no, they shouldn't get compensation. If they were illegal they should get compensation (at least back wages) and the responsible people should be tried as criminals.
Another dirty secret of the Catholic Church... This, along with child molestation and the harboring of Nazi war criminals, makes the modern Church culpable of many atrocities. Supporters of the Catholic Church argue that the Inquisition was centuries ago. How do they respond to this? It has only been a little over a decade since the last of the Magdalene Asylum laundries closed. Yes, reparations should be paid!
yes, they should have to pay a lifetime's salary plus compounded interest for each person so enslaved...
You're not quite right in your description of the laundries. They were initially created to help women living on the streets etc. Also, you're wrong about the male relative, any family member that pushed hard enough would have a member released to them. That said, they became a horrendous blight on Ireland, the usual power corrupting issues. Legally, it seems to be a grey area. I've yet to see something that said after reaching the age of 18 they couldn't just leave. The point was, where could they go. Ireland was VERY different back in those days. Do I think they should pay reparations? I actually don't know. Until i see something concrete on the legal standpoint, I just don't know.
Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt.
Reparations should be made. Since the women's lives are already ruined, perhaps the Catholic Church should be made to suffer. How about a tax assessment?
The Catholic Church, "The Great Whore of christendom" shouldn't be allowed to propagate the idolatry of Mary anywhere in the world. Stick with Catholicism's Idolatry go to "Hell'. It's as simple as that., as the Ten Commandments makes that quite plain. However Catholicisms corrupted bible won't tell you that, and the through Mary to Jesus is an outright lie, just the same as the church's ever virgin crap. She had other children. So that doesn't make her a virgin, but then Catholicism is full of lots of BS, but too many of it's followers are blind to that or the blind being lead by the blind.
I didn't know anything about this so I decided to do some research and here's what I found: First off, the movie was written by a Scottish actor who watched the Channel 4 special one night and was outraged at what he saw. He didn't research the validity of the story nor speak to the women who gave their testimonies, but he wrote a movie about them. The movie is actually stated as a work of fiction, not a non-fictional or even a historical work. The "based upon a true story" phrase is overused and usually quite loose to the real stories. Actually, if you watch until the end of the movie and let the credits roll through, there's a disclaimer at the end stating the characters are "entirely fictional". Example of this would be "An American Haunting" it's based upon a true story but pretty much the only thing similar in the story and the movie are the names of the people. The supposed true encounters never happened except for one and even that was exploited over what the true encounter was. Half of what happened in that movie wasn't even true and the other half that was, was barely. Second, the Magdalene Institute was started as a way to get women off the streets because of the prostitute problem in Ireland. Many women couldn't be hired for a job because of the promiscuous life they led and as unfair as that may seem, that was the time period back then. If you were unmarried and got pregnant, you either married the man who got you that way or you were thrown from the family. Women who were promiscuous were usually disinherited from their families and thrown into the streets to fend for themselves. The Sisters of Mercy started the Magdalene Institute to allow prostitutes, unwed mothers and abused women and girls a place of refuge. They were allowed to leave as they pleased once they were old enough and there are quite a few reports of that as well. Many came back though, as they had no other place to go. Third, these institutes weren't only ran by the Catholic Church, the Church only founded it. They were spread throughout qute a few continents and other church sects ran them as well (they weren't really an organized organization, but quite sporadic). There was even one in San Francisco until the late 1930's. The movie only makes it look like it was only ran by the Church and made them look cruel and evil, which may have not been the case. Unfortunately, there isn't much known about these places, though glass on top of the walls to avoid escaping women was certainly not true. I can only go by what I've found, the Catholic Church did come out and apologize to anyone who might've been abused and did pay compensation to those who were abused. I ask though you think about this: In 150 years of these Asylums in use, there were over 30,000 women placed within them for varying reasons. Yet there was never a mutiny though the nuns there were outnumbered 5 to 1, if not more, and many of the women there joined the Sisters of Mercy once old enough--freely, might I add. These supposed abused, overworked and poor women joined with their supposed captors and worked to abuse and imprison others the same way they had been without feeling an inkling of remorse, guilt or sorrow. Also, if you committed some heinous crime like this, would you sell your property to a real estate agent knowing what lay behind those walls? Certainly not, but the nuns did, they sold the land and didn't try to hide anything, if they were those unmarked graves wouldn't have been found. Right? I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but I don't believe we have the whole story and there's more to this than what "The Magdalene Sisters" shows. Actually, there's less I should say but it's a pity, this movie has made a mockery out of something that should've been taken seriously. He's thrown people into outraged accusations and placed a large amount of propaganda out there for Anti-Catholic organizations that will now use this to pollute people's aspect upon the Catholic Church while the validity of the situation is still undecided. I believe if this really did happen, then it was an isolated incident, not a world wide conspiricy the Catholic Church was trying, and horribly failing, to cover up. The reason there was no pay was because for their work they received room and board, clothes, food and a place away from the harsh conditions beyond the Institute. As for the compensation, the Catholic Church has already paid it to those who showed signs of abuse and the likes. I just thought I should post what I found for others to see that the movie isn't correct, not even close so please research it.