The Catholic Church And Magdalen Laundries

[Randy Carson]

Geez Randy, what's with your hard-on for finding the handful of atheists that agree with you?  Not sure why you think it adds credibility to your argument, because there plenty of non-atheists that are extremely upset with the catholic church's activities as well.

I'll agree that critics of the Catholic Church can sometimes jump to conclusions on certain issues or try to paint every person in the organization with the same brush, but I don't understand your penchant for trotting out the one or two "REFRESHING ATHEIST WRITERS" that might agree with you.

What should lend credibility to your argument isn't the fact that one is an atheist, it's the facts that are present in the argument.

More importantly, what is it with you and quoting someone else's work without a word of your own to go with it?  -_-

I'm quoting others in direct response to the hate-filled lies being spread by Nope.

Beyond what Brendon O'Neill and the physicians who investigated this have said, what more do I need to add?

After all, I'm a Christian, a liar and a shill. No one believes what I write.

[Longhorn]

Yes, copy more text from the link you already posted -_-

It's really not necessary Randy. We can click on hypertext, you know.

[Longhorn]

I'm quoting others in direct response to the hate-filled lies being spread by Nope.

Beyond what Brendon O'Neill and the physicians who investigated this have said, what more do I need to add?

You don't need to add to it. You can summarize or paraphrase it. But quoting huge chunks of text, especially when you've already provided the link and not including anything from yourself is way annoying. It disturbs the flow of the conversation, and it's not how discussion works. So please don't do that

[Randy Carson]

Er...catholic league sources?  For both your points?

The Catholic League article summarizes the findings of other reports.

Unless you were planning on travelling to Ireland and doing your own research on the ground...

[FatAndFaithless]

I'm not commenting either the OP or your sources in terms of accuracy, I just wish you'd stop caps-locking any ATHEIST WRITER that agrees with you and just focus on the damn facts presented.

[Randy Carson]

I'm quoting others in direct response to the hate-filled lies being spread by Nope.

Beyond what Brendon O'Neill and the physicians who investigated this have said, what more do I need to add?

You don't need to add to it. You can summarize or paraphrase it. But quoting huge chunks of text, especially when you've already provided the link and not including anything from yourself is way annoying. It disturbs the flow of the conversation, and it's not how discussion works. So please don't do that

N-

A decade of online experience has taught me that some people don't follow links...

It's best to provide the text itself when it's not overly long.

[25point81]

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Statements from Physicians in the McAleese Reports

Dr. Michael Coughlan:

“I had expected to find a very unhappy, deprived group who would have significant medical and especially psychological complaints and special needs. I was, therefore, surprised to encounter a group of ladies who appeared to be quite happy and content with their current environment and who presented with the type of symptoms and problems that reflected those of the wider Practice population.”

“My expected image of them all looking the same in drab uniform was quickly dissipated when I observed that each one presented dressed in colourful clothes and those who came directly from the Laundry were wearing a type of overlapping protective overall or apron, under which I could notice that they were wearing a variety of more personal choice of clothes.”

“Whenever I sensed that one of the ladies had something personal or sensitive to discuss, I always asked the Nurse or Nun to leave and afforded them the opportunity to elaborate in confidence. Interestingly, I cannot recall any occasion that the patient complained in any manner about her treatment by the Nuns in the Home, neither recently nor in the distant past….”

“With respect to the question of any evidence of past injuries, broken bones or any other suggestions of physical or psychological abuse in the past, I cannot remember coming across any patient that presented with symptoms or signs that would or should have alerted me to such maltreatment, apart from one case when a resident got scalded with hot water, which I believe was an accidental injury.”

“Overall, my experience [with the Magdalene] was a happy and gratifying one. The Residents were a delightful and happy group of ladies, each with their own unique personality and they appeared to me to have a good and friendly relationship with the Mercy Sisters. Equally, my impression was that the Sisters were very caring towards the Residents and I never found any evidence to the contrary.”

Dr. John Ryan:

“[T]here were a number of incidents of fractures but they were all from falls and usually out in the city, but none were suspicious in any way and I did not come across any evidence of unexplained bruising or scalding etc.”

Dr. Donal Kelly:

“Many of these ladies were forgotten by their own or orphaned. They were poorly educated and some were mentally retarded. If the Sisters of Charity had not provided them with a home I don’t know who would have cared for them….Never did I witness any evidence of physical or mental abuse.”

Dr. Harry Comber:

“There was no evidence of any traumatic injuries inflicted during my time, nor did anyone ever show me evidence of any previous injury….The women seemed reasonably happy, although some regretted the loss of opportunity to have a life, families and children of their own….I would be surprised if there was, in the time I was there, any mistreatment of them, either verbal or physical.”

Dr. Malachy Coleman:

“I always felt that the ladies were well fed and well cared for. Their complaints were routine and normal consistent with those presenting in general practice. I saw no evidence of any traumatic injuries either historically, prior to my taking up the post, or for the time I cared for the ladies.”

“My overall impression of the Good Shepherd Convent in the main, was of an institute run by caring nuns which contained a number of ladies who were unlikely to be able to care for themselves.”

“While the ladies were very deferential to the nuns I did not at any stage get an impression of coercion or fear in the relationship between the ladies and the nuns. If anything I think the nuns did too much for the ladies and so decreased their capacity to care for themselves.”

Source.

Well, I'm sure the Catholic League would gladly tell the unvarnished truth about any matter reflecting poorly upon the church.

[FatAndFaithless]

Er..also, your Catholic league source with the physicians quotes isn't a compilation of multiple reports, its just the physicians' testimony all of whom worked in the laundries from a single report, the McAleese Report.

And it seems your Catholic leage source ignores the entirety of the inmates' testimony in chapter 19, which is a collection of testimonies from 118 survivors, whose testimony contradicts the testimony of the physicians employed there. There's plenty of criticism of the McAleese Report, particularly that the Irish government was complicit in overseeing the work at the laundries and even sent a few thousand women there, yet they still assigned an internal investigation to take place.

[25point81]

So there's this ghost, right?

The ghost rapes a woman who was a virgin and, even though she was raped, remains a virgin.
You with me so far?

Then, even though she's a virgin and was raped by a ghost, she became pregnant.

Then, some kings followed a star and that led them to a stable where a woman, the one that was raped by the ghost and remained a virgin but got pregnant anyway, was having a baby.

Then, they wrote the McAleese Report.

Simple really.