You're Going to a Home!

It also occurred to me that all the decision-makers in this tragic story of child exploitation, were actually beneficiaries of the child care system as it was then structured. To prove my point I offer the following evidence, which clearly illustrates how each group realized their respective agendas.

The Parents - The Home kids’ parents, most of whom were hopelessly dirt-poor, saw the Catholic Homes as a viable opportunity to free themselves of their burdensome parental responsibilities; which would allow them a much better chance to escape the squalid living conditions of their ghetto neighborhoods.

Any guilt feelings that the parents may have experienced from giving up their children were easily erased by the blind trust they had in the clergy’s ability to raise the children well and give them a good catholic education – which in my opinion was over-rated.

I honestly believe that the majority of the parents were convinced that their agendas were morally correct, in that they were predicated on the premise that the kids would be "better off in the Homes."

The Federal Government – It is a well known fact that maintaining a strong, well-manned Military is a very high priority on the Federal Government’s list of agendas. And you can be certain that the Government was well aware that the Homeboys provided them with an abundant wealth of recruits with the necessary attributes and potential to become career servicemen.

Military personnel were allowed to visit the Home and aggressively recruit the boys over eighteen years of age, and when graduation day arrived you would always see a military bus parked on the Home grounds and eventually leave with a busload of kids bound for the basic training camps.

State and City Governments – The State and City politicians designed the Child Care system and passed legislation which facilitated the process of placing children from dysfunctional families in the Homes. They were eager to rid New York and their constituents of the petty thieves and truants who blighted the city’s image, disrupted classrooms, and were potential threats to civic order. The politicians also ingratiated themselves with the politically influential catholic hierarchy by supplying them with the human resources and the capital necessary to operate their child care business.

The Archdiocese of New York – The Roman Catholic Church was without a doubt the principal benefactor of New York’s child care system. They openly promoted their Homes for children and probably advised the parishioners who were having problems caring for their offspring, that their first and best option for resolving the situation was to send the kids to a catholic Home, where they could learn to become good and God-fearing Christians.

The Catholic Church gladly accepted the responsibility of caring for the children (the younger, the better) who were "railroaded" into their Homes, because it presented them with the opportunity to shape the kids’ minds and they would be able to espouse their religious philosophy to the children with impunity.

The odds were excellent that the Archdiocese of N.Y. would be able to realize their agenda for recruiting a percentage of the Homeboys for the priesthood, as well as the Church’s missionary operations. After the children were discharged from the Homes they generally settled in the State of New York, which certainly had a positive impact on the Catholic Archdiocese’s agenda to expand their patronage base of loyal Catholics throughout the State.

Clearly, the only losers were the children.