There is very few people in the country who are not familiar with Philomena Lee’s story, the subject of the Oscar nominated film Philomena.
Philomena’s story is tragic and yet inspiring, as a pregnant teenager she was sent to the Magdalene laundries where she spent three and a half years while her son was essentially raised by the nuns. Philomena was allowed to see him in the evenings.
After three years, Anthony, her son, was taken away from her and given up for adoption. Philomena subsequently moved to England but never stopped searching for her boy.
It turns out that he was also searching for her but after years of trying to find him, she discovered he had passed away from AIDS.
Philomena has now set up the Philomena Project, a call to the Catholic Church to release the information concerning the children from Magdalene Laundries.
The text from the Change.org project reads: “It is the goal of this project to collect petitions from around the world asking The Church to provide closure for these families. This forum will be a place where not only mothers tell their stories, but where young people that were adopted can seek out their birth mothers. The Philomena Project will act as a repository for these actual stories, raising awareness on the issue while also being sensitive to the privacy of the mothers and children affected by these events.”
The project is currently looking for signatures for the Church to relase the records over on change.org.
