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The Church should help pay for the €13 million needed to excavate the site of a former mother and baby home in County Galway, says Irish Children’s minister, Catherine Zappone.
She has written to Pope Francis asking the Vatican to “contribute substantially” towards the excavation.
About 800 infants aged from about 35 foetal weeks up to two or three years are thought to have been buried in a disused septic tank at the site.
The excavated remains will be forensically examined and then reburied.
“I am committed to ensuring that all the children interred at this site can have a dignified and respectful burial,” Zappone says.
“It is only by taking the right actions now can we truly demonstrate our compassion and commitment to work towards justice, truth and healing for what happened in our past and, most especially, for those who were previously abandoned.”
Zappone says she has been in negotiations and communications with the Bon Secours sisters who ran the maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children from 1925 to 1961.
The sisters have offered a fixed contribution of €2.5 million towards the cost of the excavation work.
“…I presented [the sisters’] offer to the Government and requested and suggested that in principle they accept the offer to share a portion of the cost for the amount over the period of time this course will take.”
Zappone says the Government has in principle accepted the offer. So far, there has been no official response from the Vatican to Zappone’s request for financial support.
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