Bill Donohue comments on today’s ABC show, “Good Morning America,” which featured a segment on “Philomena”:
“GMA” interviewed Steve Coogan, a producer and screenwriter of “Philomena.” In the voice over, the following was said: “Philomena is based on a true story about an Irishwoman played by Judi Dench who travels to the U.S. to track down the son she was forced to give up for adoption when she was a teenager.”
In his remarks, Coogan said that 50 years ago in Ireland, women who were pregnant out-of-wedlock, and abandoned by their family, would go to homes run by nuns where “your child would be sold to Catholic, often American, wealthy American couples.”
Regarding the lie that Philomena Lee went to the U.S. to look for her son, here is what Suzanne Daley and Douglas Dalby wrote in the New York Times on November 29, 2013: “In fact, much of the movie is a fictionalized version of events. Ms. Lee, for instance, never went to the United States to look for her son with Mr. Sixsmith, who is played by Steve Coogan, a central part of the film.”
Not only did Philomena voluntarily sign an oath when she was 22 giving her son up for adoption, in the film itself, Dench says, “No one coerced me. I signed of my own free will.”
Regarding the lie about the baby being sold, in the book by Martin Sixsmith upon which the film is based, he says, “While neither the NCCC [National Conference of Catholic Charities] nor Sean Ross Abbey [the convent where Philomena resided] charge any fees, it is customary for the adopting party to make a donation….” Moreover, nuns at the abbey today insist that no fee was charged.
These lies are being aided and abetted by many in the media, for reasons that only underscore the existence of the Catholic League.
