A program run by the Vatican in the 1950s allegedly sent thousands of Italian children born out of wedlock to America as orphans for adoption, often without the consent of their mothers.
From 1950 to 1970, the Vatican is estimated to have sent 3,500 Italian children to America on "orphan visas," made possible by a US law that expanded the definition of orphan. Under that law, a child with one living parent was still considered an orphan if that parent could not provide adequate care.
The Vatican's program, which launched at the end of World War II, was uncovered by New York author Maria Laurino in her upcoming book "The Price of Children: Stolen Lives in a Land Without Choice."
Mothers Stripped From Their Child's Birth Records
For her book, Laurino reviewed hundreds of documents found in the Vatican's New York archives. In one of the records, Francesca, a mother, said she was forced by her family to give up her son after she got pregnant out of wedlock. Francesca surrendered her baby at a Vatican-run institution specifically for the children of unwed mothers.
The nuns at the institution stripped Francesca's name from the child's birth records and shipped the baby to America for adoption. The church charged $475 per child. In today's money, that would amount to $4,500, per CBS News, which spoke to Francesca's son John Campitelli.
Laurino later found letters written by Francesca from the archives where she pleaded with Monsignor Andrew Landi, an American priest living in Rome who was running the orphan program, to return her child.
"I beg that my children be repatriated," the letter read, "If I cannot again see my children, I will shorten my life."
Campitelli spoke to Francesca on the phone for the first time in 1991 more than a decade after he began trying to find her. They met in Italy when he was 28.
Scouring for More 'Orphans'
In addition to those surrendered to the Vatican-run institution, Monsignor Landi also ordered local priests to scour Italy's countryside for more children born out of wedlock. This was so they could meet the growing demand from Americans eager to adopt a child.
Furthermore, Laurino also uncovered that some mothers who were told they could get their baby back were told their children had died when in fact they were sent to the US for adoption.
The Vatican abolished the program in 1970. However, the Church insists that the program gave the children a "new life." Monsignor Landi died in 1999, Laurino told 60 Minutes.
