Who Do We Turn To?

In past generations the Irish people have always been of a religious sort.

Grandparents attended church weekly, praising our Lord so devoutly in song and prayer. They never saw or imagined the atrocities. They will live with their faith, and it will carry them to the grave and hopefully beyond.

Parents have their beliefs, taught by their parents and the priests and clergy of their schools. They dreamed of marriage in a church under the watchful eyes of an all loving God, as did their parents. They saw the crimes committed behind the scenes come to light, after their religion had been instilled in them.

Their children, my generation, is far from this lineage. We may have been brought to church, sang the hymns, made our sacraments of baptism, communion and confirmation. Only because this is what our parents were taught children need to go through.

Some of us held these beliefs to heart, and will carry on their religion.

There are those of us that can’t.

We have heard the stories, priests taking interest in the children placed in their care, the Irish need to repress anything that could shame a family allowing this. Blasphemy ruling over those affected, because who will believe the man who is capable of these acts also overlooked your sacraments? Is the mouthpiece of the Almighty? Tales of mass graves, hidden by the sisters meant to protect those within them.

We find it hard to find faith in an institution capable of this.

So the question remains of our faith, and who we'll meet at the end.