Francis’s Secretary to Recommend ‘philomena’

By Conall O Fatharta
Irish Examiner
February 7, 2014

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/franciss-secretary-to-recommend-philomena-257991.html


The film, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, tells the true story of Philomena Lee’s search for the son she was forced to put up for adoption through the Sean Ross Abbey mother and baby home in 1952, when she was 19.

Ms Lee, who met Pope Francis on Wednesday, also attended the screening along with her daughter, Jane Libberton, and Coogan, who wrote, produced, and starred in the film.

Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, who is also in Rome as part of the Philomena Project, said the Pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Guillermo Karcher, indicated that he did not view the film as anti-Catholic and would recommend it to Pope Francis.

Some critics in the US had hit out at the film as being “90 minutes of organised hate”.

Last month, Ms Lee and her daughter, founded the Philomena Project, in association with the Adoption Rights Alliance. It is lobbying the State to grant access to adoption records for both in-country and Irish-US adopted people and their families.

Tracing and information legislation has been a “priority” of every government since 1997 and has been delayed a number of times by the current Government.

There are an estimated 60,000 adopted people in Ireland, with adoption groups claiming that the number of illegal adoptions could run into the thousands.