Orphans no more

Last week, I went to see Philomena the new film based on a true story starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. Dench plays Philomena Lee, Coogan the journalist Martin Sixsmith who helps her track down the son she gave birth to as an Irish teenager, and was then compelled to give up for adoption, The film is based on Sixsmith’s book The lost child of Philomena Lee.

In 1952, the pregnant Philomena was sent to Sean Ross Abbey in Rosecrea, Tipperary where she gave birth to a son, Anthony. She was compelled to work in the laundry at the Abbey to pay for her keep, but had opportunity to bond with her son.

When he was 3, an adoption was arranged by the nuns (with a payment to the Church involved); Philomena was compelled to sign away all rights of access to Anthony, and according to the book told that if she ever spoke about her baby she would burn in ‘the fires of hell’ forever.

It’s fair to say that the Church has disputed some of the detail in the film, and that it is by no means entirely critical of Catholicism. But Martin Sixsmith, an atheist, is depicted as being justifiably horrified by the judgementalism of the nuns, the compelling of young girls to give up all rights to their babies, the apparent willingness of the Abbey to profit from arranging adoptions, the abrupt parting of young children from mums with whom they had deeply bonded; the refusal to give information to people seeking the story of their past.

The film contrasts Sixsmith’s antagonism towards God and Church with Philomena’s quiet faith in God and in the goodness of God.

Churches and individual Christians do sometimes get things grievously wrong. While it’s fair to say that the Roman Catholic Church seems to have got it wrong more than most, there are many ‘walking wounded’ who have been hurt by the practices and teachings and attitudes of Churches and individuals. It is absolutely right to highlight and criticise such abuse in constructive ways.

And it’s easy to allow the bad stuff to make us cynical about God and about the whole Christian enterprise. Philomena’s example shows us that in a universe where we have freedom of choice it is wrong to blame God for the behaviour of some of God’s followers.

The bulk of Martin Sixsmith’s book focuses on the story of Philomena’s son, which is only touched on in the film. Sixsmith describes the impact on Anthony of being adopted by American parents, along with another Rosecrea child, and renamed Michael Hess.

According to Sixsmith’s research, Michael suffered severe consequences from being a virtual orphan with no identity, no back story. He believed his mother (about whom he was told nothing) must have abandoned him, and that he must be inherently ‘bad’. Despite good times and good friendships, he had a pervasive sense of worthlessness, was tortured by addictive behaviour patterns, and, believing himself unworthy of happiness, perversely sought to destroy his own joy. On top of all this, he faced the challenge of being gay.

A teacher described the theme of a poem they were studying: ‘our fate is to suffer the memory of Paradise in the torment of exile.’ This resonated with Michael who had come to feel he’d been expelled from an Irish Garden of Eden.

It struck me that Christian teaching depicts each of us as being to a greater or lesser extent orphaned from our Father God, struggling with the consequences of orphanhood – issues of worth, identity and happiness – while all the time searching for a Father of whom we may never have heard.

Sixsmith has Michael Hess reflecting on faint memories of Ireland: ‘It’s like you’ve heard a song and really loved it, and you can’t get it out of your head, but then it fades and you can still recall the feeling of it but it won’t come back to you.’ He recognises an Irish ballad, and thinks his mum once sang it to him. It seemed ‘like a message to me from that other world I come from.’

I believe our Father gives us a similar yearning for home, seeking us out with whispers of love which awaken us to our true identity and encourage us to reach out to Father and find ourselves orphans no more.

The strongest evidence in the film for God’s reality is Philomena’s willingness to forgive the Rosecrea nuns for their treatment of her – a willingness more explicit in the film than the book.

This willingness to forgive, contrary to all logic and reason, is I believe a sign of the gracious presence of the Father who at such great personal cost forgives all who are willing to come home.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 14th November 2013)