18 July 2018

Did You Ever Buy a Pagan Baby?

Before, and for a short while after, the Council, many Mission Orders raised funds by 'selling pagan babies'. The technique was often used in Catholic schools to teach the children the importance of contributing to the Missions. For a contribution to the Order you got to pick the Christian name with which a 'pagan baby' was baptised.

I 'bought pagan babies' as an adult. I honestly thought it was just a cute fundraising scam by the mission orders, so I chose good, solid, mediæval North Germanic Saints' names like Cunegunda and Guthlac! Imagine my surprise years later, on meeting a member of the Order from which I had 'bought pagan babies' and being told that they had actually used the names I submitted! I can only hope that the priests were intelligent men and used them as middle names and gave sensible first names! If not, I'm sure there are many middle aged people in India and Africa where the Order to which I contributed is active who are cursing that Westerner who chose their names!

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