The Price of Children - Stolen Lives in a Land Without Choice

The Italian Radio Hour

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This week on The Italian Radio Hour - In a shattered post WWII Italy, the Vatican instituted an orphan program that brought thousands of Italian children to the US to be adopted by American Catholics were eager to make the different in the lives of those Italian children coming from a very impoverished country. They thought they were saving orphans. They were wrong. Most of the children were not orphans. They were the children of unwed mothers who had been pressured into giving up their child by their families and a powerful church. Today, thousands of American adoptees are still struggling to piece together their lost lives, decades after the Vatican's orphan program ended in 1970. New York author Maria Laurino, an acclaimed, essayist, and journalist known for her insightful explorations of Italian-American identity, culture, and history takes us on her personal journey of examining her dual identity starting with her book: Were You Always an Italian?, which examines stereotypes and cultural heritage, to The Italian Americans: A History, a companion book to the PBS series of the same name to her latest book "The Price of Children" where Laurino sheds light on the Vatican's orphan program, after having examined and research hundreds of documents that enabled Laurino to piece together what happened between 1950 and 1970, when the Church sent thousands of children born out of wedlock, or later simply a parent who couldn't provide care, to America on orphan visas. . Laurino also indicates that mothers were deliberately misled by doctors and lawyers to sign consent forms which ultimately took the children away from their birth mothers forever. Those documents would be sealed for 100 years, under the Vatican law. Laurino's poignant storytelling and astonishing investigative work create a powerful picture of what religion and government together can do to silence women. Laurino's book might leave readers angry at times but also hopeful that shedding light on this hidden story can help us avoid repeating the past. If you are or know someone who fell under this program, you are encouraged to contact Maria Laurino via her website: https://www.marialaurino.com/

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