ABC Breakfast, 7 February, 2015, a report about the meeting between Philomena Lee and Pope Francis:
Reporter: The theft of her son led to a life of grief and guilt. The highest ranking Catholic of all was taking Philomena Lee by the hand. And after all the harm done, this 80 year old, deeply devout woman, had been searching for her own absolution …
Philomena: “It was such an awful thing to have a baby out of wedlock … he really made me feel that he was going to do something about it, and I feel so good inside.”
Reporter: Philomena Lee has become the public face of the trauma suffered by thousands of girls in convent laundries in Ireland. The film Philomena tells of her 50 year search for her son, who was sold for adoption when he was 3 and she was an unmarried teenager.
Now the Irish woman is travelling the world with the Philomena Project – a campaign to force the church, the state and agencies to give families access to adoption records … Pope Francis met Philomean Lee on the same day the UN created headlines with its scathing report on sexual abuse by clergy. In the Report the UN called on the Church to launch an investigation into the Magdalene Laundries and similar places and pay compensation to victims and their families. For one survivor this long and painful search for justice continues …
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CC comment: Here in Australia we are still waiting for compensation and the provision of adequate mental health services to deal with the trauma of Forced Adoption.
