‘I told him those women were in hiding, carrying a secret’: Clodagh Malone on meeting Pope Francis

Clodagh Malone, a survivor of St Patrick's mother and baby home, meeting Pope Francis during his visit to Ireland in 2018.

A survivor of a mother and baby home has revealed how Pope Francis answered her personal plea to publicly tell mothers searching for their adopted children that they were not committing a mortal sin.

Clodagh Malone was one of eight people who had a private 90-minute meeting with the Pope when he visited Ireland in August 2018.

She was born in the St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home on the Navan Rd, and received an invite to the meeting by former Dublin archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

“I was first to talk to him at the meeting in the Papal Nuncio’s house, and I told him I would very much appreciate it if he could tell birth mothers it was not a mortal sin to go looking for your child after they were adopted,” Ms Malone said.

“Most of these adoptions were forced or illegal.”

She said many women, including fellow survivor Philomena Lee, had been told by nuns that it was a mortal sin to go looking for your adopted child.

“He listened to us; he had an interpreter with him who wrote down everything I asked”.

She told the Irish Examiner that she was “absolutely flabbergasted” when the Pope delivered a message to an open-air Mass in the Phoenix Park the day after their meeting.

There, the Pope told the gathered crowds: “We ask forgiveness for the children who were taken away from their moms, and for all those times when many single mothers were told that to seek their children who had been separated from them — and the same was told to their daughters and sons who were looking for their mothers — that this was a mortal sin.”

Ms Malone said: “I honestly couldn’t believe it. I was being interviewed by Sky News near the angel’s plot in Glasnevin when they told me that the Pope had just delivered my message.”

At the meeting in the Papal Nuncio’s house, Pope Francis also spoke of how children here were “robbed of their innocence and taken from their mothers”.

Ms Malone said the meeting was “deeply emotional” and she found “forgiveness and peace” afterwards.

“When he walked in the door, his presence was astounding,” she said.

“I was standing there with my friend Paul Redmond. I said: ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ My adoptive mother was very religious.

“He was very charismatic and unassuming. I thought we would get a few minutes.

“But he gave us 90 minutes and he had no security with him, just all of us in a room with him and his interpreter”.

Ms Malone was first to speak at the meeting, and said while she had very little time to prepare, she knew exactly what she wanted to say.

“I wanted to talk about the mother and baby homes and the abuse, we all know the badness that went on in the Catholic Church. The Pope knew it. He was calm and not shocked.”

Ms Malone said she was “astounded” by his kind manner.

“I told him those women were in hiding, carrying a secret they could not share. He got a standing ovation for delivering that message, and I work as a search angel, and I was inundated with requests to find women’s children after that”.

It is estimated that around 68,000 people went through the mother and baby homes, often leaving without their child, but Ms Malone also wanted to make a point about the abuse.

“When the interpreter translated what I was saying about the abuse, Pope Francis took a piece of paper, drew a picture of a toilet and pointed to it, and said ‘Caca’ — basically he said that this was ‘shit’. He put his hands to his head, he shook his head, he was disgusted.

“He knew these were not gentle places. I think that is why we were so long in with him, he wanted to listen.”

When the meeting ended, she said she reached out and hugged the Pope — who embraced her.

“He wasn’t frightened of us, he gave us his undivided attention and, when I came home, I felt a shift in myself. I felt I could forgive myself and that is when I came forward myself about being abused by a member of the clergy”.

Ms Malone said she was sad to hear of the Pope’s passing, adding that she is grateful for the time with him.

“He was a good man and was trying to repair some damage by coming to meet us, he knew we were trampled on.

“He was forward thinking and for that, I am truly grateful.”