Associated Press apologises for its 'incorrect' reporting of the Tuam babies scandal

By Tim Stanley
Telegraph (UK)
June 21, 2014

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100277164/associated-press-apologises-for-its-incorrect-reporting-of-the-tuam-babies-scandal/

The alleged site of a mass grave for children who died in the Tuam mother and baby home, Galway, Ireland

The Associated Press has issued an apology for its inaccurate reporting on the fate of the Tuam babies – 796 children at a home in Ireland who were reportedly “dumped” in a septic tank after they died (an accusation that I, along with several Catholic bloggers, called into question). They were, said some commentators, victims of Church doctrine. The AP’s apology now suggests otherwise:

In stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.

Make no mistake: the Tuam children’s home was an awful place with terrible conditions that reflected an ignorantly low opinion of “illegitimate” children held across the so-called civilised world in the early 20th century. But what happened there was not a reflection of Catholic doctrine, which cherishes life. And, particularly given the human nature of the tragedy, the reporting of it should have been more accurate and thoughtful. Good for Associated Press for issuing this apology – it is a hard yet wonderful thing to admit that you got something wrong.