Catholic Church and Baby Selling

[Alecto]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... Spain.html

Up to 300,000 Spanish babies were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption over a period of five decades, a new investigation reveals.

The children were trafficked by a secret network of doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in a widespread practice that began during General Franco’s dictatorship and continued until the early Nineties.

Hundreds of families who had babies taken from Spanish hospitals are now battling for an official government investigation into the scandal.

Several mothers say they were told their first-born children had died during or soon after they gave birth.

In reality, the babies were sold to childless couples whose devout beliefs and financial security meant that they were seen as more appropriate parents.

Official documents were forged so the adoptive parents’ names were on the infants’ birth certificates.

In many cases it is believed they were unaware that the child they received had been stolen, as they were usually told the birth mother had given them up.

Journalist Katya Adler, who has investigated the scandal, says: ‘The situation is incredibly sad for thousands of people.

‘There are men and women across Spain whose lives have been turned upside-down by discovering the people they thought were their parents actually bought them for cash. There are also many mothers who have maintained for years that their babies did not die – and were labelled “hysterical†– but are now discovering that their child has probably been alive and brought up by somebody else all this time.’

Experts believe the cases may account for up to 15 per cent of the total adoptions that took place in Spain between 1960 and 1989.

It began as a system for taking children away from families deemed politically dangerous to the regime of General Franco, which began in 1939. The system continued after the dictator’s death in 1975 as the Catholic church continued to retain a powerful influence on public life, particularly in social services.

It was not until 1987 that the Spanish government, instead of hospitals, began to regulate adoptions.

The scandal came to light after two men, Antonio Barroso and Juan Luis Moreno, discovered they had been stolen as babies.

Mr Moreno’s ‘father’ confessed on his deathbed to having bought him as a baby from a priest in Zaragoza in northern Spain. He told his son he had been accompanied on the trip by Mr Barroso’s parents, who bought Antonio at the same time for 200,000 pesetas – a huge sum at the time.

‘That was the price of an apartment back then,’ Mr Barroso said. ‘My parents paid it in instalments over the course of ten years because they did not have enough money.’

DNA tests have proved that the couple who brought up Mr Barroso were not his biological parents and the nun who sold him has admitted to doing so.

When the pair made their case public, it prompted mothers all over the country to come forward with their own experiences of being told their babies had died, but never believing it. One such woman was Manoli Pagador, who has begun searching for her son.

A BBC documentary, This World: Spain’s Stolen Babies, follows her efforts to discover if he is Randy Ryder, a stolen baby who was brought up in Texas and is now aged 40.

In some cases, babies’ graves have been exhumed, revealing bones that belong to adults or animals. Some of the graves contained nothing at all.

The BBC documentary features an interview with an 89-year-old woman named Ines Perez, who admitted that a priest encouraged her to fake a pregnancy so she could be given a baby girl due to be born at Madrid’s San Ramon clinic in 1969. ‘The priest gave me padding to wear on my stomach,’ she says.

It is claimed that the San Ramon clinic was one of the major centres for the practice.

Many mothers who gave birth there claim that when they asked to see their child after being told it had died, they were shown a baby’s corpse that appeared to be freezing cold.

The BBC programme shows photographs taken in the Eighties of a dead baby kept in a freezer, allegedly to show grieving mothers.

Despite hundreds of families of babies who disappeared in Spanish hospitals calling on the government to open an investigation into the scandal, no nationally co-ordinated probe has taken place.

As a result of amnesty laws passed after Franco’s death, crimes that took place during his regime are usually not examined. Instead, regional prosecutors across the country are investigating each story on a case-by-case basis, with 900 currently under review.

But Ms Adler says: ‘There is very little political will to get to the bottom of the situation.’

There are believed to be thousands more cases that will never come to light because the stolen children fear their adoptive parents will be seen as criminals.

Many of the families of stolen babies have taken DNA tests in the hope of eventually being matched with their children. Some matches have already been made but, without a nationally co-ordinated database, reuniting lost relatives will be a very difficult process.

This World: Spain’s Stolen Babies is on BBC2 on Tuesday at 9pm.

[mirele]

Wow, holy crap! This is even more widespread than the hundreds of children who were stolen during Argentina's Dirty War.

[SamuraiKatz]

This is beyond disturbing..

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/ ... peng_1/Ten

An additional link for one of the people mentioned in the first story.

[Caxpax]

And do we need any more evidence that the Catholic church should not have absolutely nothing to do with adoptions EVER?

Actually, not just the Catholic church. Any church. There seems to be an inordinately high percentage of people willing to lie for Jeebus involved with the adoption industry.

[ChunkyBarbie]

This is beyond disturbing. The dead baby kept in the freezer?!?! WTF! That is just sick, evil, and twisted. None of this can just be explained away as for the greater good.

Churches should not be in charge of adoptions. Clearly, following a religion doesn't automatically make you a good person or parent. Also, how does the church justify playing God and for cash, no less?

[MerryHappy]

Horrifying. :(

[Prek teach]

This does not surprise me. It saddens me, yet does not surprise me. Weren't there issues among the Indian Schools in the US and Canada where children were adopted out by the Catholics running the schools? Aren't there even mothers here in the US who spent time in those lovely places called "homes for unwed mothers" who also had their babies adopted out?

[Austin]

And do we need any more evidence that the Catholic church should not have absolutely nothing to do with adoptions EVER?

Actually, not just the Catholic church. Any church. There seems to be an inordinately high percentage of people willing to lie for Jeebus involved with the adoption industry.

Truer words have not been spoken.

[lilwriter85]

This does not surprise me. It saddens me, yet does not surprise me. Weren't there issues among the Indian Schools in the US and Canada where children were adopted out by the Catholics running the schools? Aren't there even mothers here in the US who spent time in those lovely places called "homes for unwed mothers" who also had their babies adopted out?

Yep stuff like that happened. Illegal adoption ring have happened quite a bit within the Catholic Church and outside the Catholic church in the U.S. I agree with another poster no church should be involved with adoptions.

[NurseNell]

This happened during the Civil War in El Salvador also. The government and the Church, as in many Latin America countries, are practically one and the same. The Army soldiers stole children and placed them in Catholic orphanages. Many ended up adopted into American families. El Salvador and the Church realized the error of their ways and now provides free help to any Salvadoran adoptee adopted during those years. I've had some personal experience in this area but I won't be sharing them. You can contact me privately.

The other situation I've read many books about but have no personal experience with are the Magdalena Laundries in Ireland. What was done to those mothers and children is a sin. Yes, lots of countries, churches, and non-religious organizations had similar treatments in the 1940's and 1950's, into the 1960's but there were 2 main differences. A woman was sent away only for the duration of the pregnancy. Women stayed much longer in the Magdalena laundries, some spent a lifetime there, and you could be sent there by family or parish priest even if you weren't pregnant but were flirtatious, dressed in a what was deemed a provocative manner, etc. Most similar places ceased to be in the 70's and 80's, or changed focus. The last Magdalena Laundry didn't close until 1997. :angry-screaming:

[MerryHappy]

This reminds me so much of the book 'The Girls Who Went Away' by Ann Fessler.

[NurseNell]

This reminds me so much of the book 'The Girls Who Went Away' by Ann Fessler.

A very good book.

[myanimus]

This is scary and so sad. When I was pregnant with my daughter my mom tried to get me to move into a home for unwed mothers ran by the Mormons, she said they'd help me understand why I was going to give her up. I ran like hell to have my daughter out of state and out of my moms reach.

[dairyfreelife]

Me either. This happens a lot more than it should. It's been a problem for centuries and will probably, very unfortunately, always be a concern.

America has shut down adoption programs in Guatemala and Ethiopia because concerns have popped up regarding baby snatching and selling. I'm not sure if those programs are still down or not, but I remember both of them being serious issues a few years ago.

Edited to fix my quote.

[duplessis3]

The Tennessee Children's Home Society, a secular organization, sold thousands of babies in the US. In Franco's Spain, the Church and the State were so heavily intertwined, (as the Church and State in Ireland) it seems that it was government sanctioned, if not ordered, so these cases are another excellent argument for the separation of Church and State. I think these horrible scandals are a reason for OPEN adoptions, as well. That way, everyone knows what is going on. (there have been reports of babies being stolen for adoption in China too.)

[lilwriter85]

The Tennessee Children's Home Society, a secular organization, sold thousands of babies in the US. In Franco's Spain, the Church and the State were so heavily intertwined, (as the Church and State in Ireland) it seems that it was government sanctioned, if not ordered, so these cases are another excellent argument for the separation of Church and State. I think these horrible scandals are a reason for OPEN adoptions, as well. That way, everyone knows what is going on. (there have been reports of babies being stolen for adoption in China too.)

I watched a 20/20 special a few years back on the Tennessee Children's Home Society baby selling ring several years back and they interviewed a few of the people who had been adopted out from the home and they were heartbroken and had hired PI's and others to look into their cases.

[Terrie]

This is a problem with adoption in general. It starts with good intentions, and then people realize the parents are being led by their hearts, not their brains, and there are always more parents looking to adopt than there are healthy infants, and there's so much paperwork and it's easy to slip a bribe in among all the fees.... The adoption industry is a perfect breeding ground for corruption.

I remember reading about a woman who adopted three kids from three different countries. She later discovered that one was outright trafficked, one had the family's consent given under dubious, though legal, circumstances (no parents, but there were living siblings), and one turned out to have a family who had been separated during a war who were actively looking for their child. Other than the first child, they were completely legit adoptions, but I think it shows why people need to be super careful in adoption and ask questions they may no want the answers to.

[Hane]

In the late '60s, someone I know got pregnant at the age of 17 and was sent to a Catholic home for unwed mothers. She really wanted to keep her baby, but some bitch of a nun lied to her that she'd be excommunicated if she didn't give her baby up for adoption. Coming from a devout Irish family, she was terrified into complying.

Many years later, she tried to find her son, only to find a letter from him telling her he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with her. Heartbreaking.

[NurseNell]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/ ... swers.html

This is a story about a Cole adoptee. This was a black market adoption ring in FL. It is one thing to be legally adopted, there's a paper trail and while often the records are sealed there are still ways to search. But with true black market adoptions there is little in the way of a paper trail and what there is is totally falsified.

One of the most basic rights of any human is to know where one came from.

[myanimus]

Could be wrong but my understanding is that even legal but closed adoptions or at least the older ones still don't allow a grown adoptee to get copies of the adoption records.

[Guest Anonymous]

[quote="Terrie"...

I remember reading about a woman who adopted three kids from three different countries. She later discovered that one was outright trafficked, one had the family's consent given under dubious, though legal, circumstances (no parents, but there were living siblings), and one turned out to have a family who had been separated during a war who were actively looking for their child. Other than the first child, they were completely legit adoptions, but I think it shows why people need to be super careful in adoption and ask questions they may no want the answers to.

[mirele]

US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts and his wife adopted two cute, blonde children from Latin America, and I believe it was from Argentina. I know people who had questions about the source of the children when he went through confirmation hearings several years ago. To me it just seemed slightly hinky.

[NurseNell]

Could be wrong but my understanding is that even legal but closed adoptions or at least the older ones still don't allow a grown adoptee to get copies of the adoption records.

It depends on the state. Most states though allow adult adoptees to petition the courts and it's possible to get a copy of their original birth certificate. There's a wide variance from state to state, judge to judge, as to the success of petitioning the courts. It's seldom that an adult adoptee gets copies of the agency files but the court documents and original birth certificate is what they can get. Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon and Tennessee allow adult adoptees to get their original birth certificate. Some states, including MN, it depends on the year of your birth as to whether you can get it, and birthparents can put a veto in place.

Having done many searches involving legal but closed adoptions I can tell you it can be done. But black market adoptions are almost impossible.

[NurseNell]

Edited to remove double posting......again. I'm only hitting submit once, honest.

[myanimus]

depends on the year of your birth as to whether you can get it, and birthparents can put a veto in place.

Having done many searches involving legal but closed adoptions I can tell you it can be done.

I was born in In. though I've been in contact with my birth mom both adoptive and birth mom were very closed about the subject. It was years ago and now I'm in contact with no one but after I was 18 I tried to get anything from In. and hit a brick wall no matter where I went.