# Catholic Dopers \>age 50- does the term "pagan babies" ring a bell? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130 "2014-05-23T22:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/1 "2014-05-23T22:13:43Z")
When I was in grade school prior to ~1961 in Catholic school, we collected money (our little pittances of coins) for some vague, needy group covered by the catch-all term “pagan babies.”\* “We’re collecting money for the pagan babies?”\* As I recall, there were little paper boxes that we saved our coins in and then turned them in to someone periodically. Anyone else do this? When did this extremely non-PC term stop being used? Who were these _pagan babies_, and did any of the pennies we contributed ever help any of them in any way? Were they some mythic group like the starving kids in China, Hungary, Elsewhere who would have been happy to have your brussels sprouts? Bonus question: Did children in Europe collect coins for the pagan babies? Or for the poor, underprivileged kids in the USA? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/2 "2014-05-23T22:17:47Z")
I went to catholic school the same time you did. It barely rings a bell hearing something about pagan babies. I don’t remember collecting money for them. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/3 "2014-05-23T22:18:03Z")
I’m 34. I went to a Catholic grade school from 1984 to 1994 and have never heard the term. The only money we collected in little paper boxes was for UNICEF and to be perfectly honest, I’m not even entirely sure what UNICEF is. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/4 "2014-05-23T22:21:57Z")
I remember doing the rice bowl thing during Lent, but I don’t remember it being for the pagan babies. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/5 "2014-05-23T22:28:27Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I remember doing the rice bowl thing during Lent, but I don’t remember it being for the pagan babies. We did that too. Starving kids in Africa or something. The rice they used was _really_ good which I think defeated the purpose since a lot of kids looked forward to it, myself included. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/6 "2014-05-24T01:24:28Z")
I do not remember the term “pagan babies” at all, although I remember the little paper boxes quite well. I’m not sure at this point for whom we were collecting – I supposed it could have been UNICEF, or perhaps a Catholic charity. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/7 "2014-05-24T01:43:02Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > We did that too. Starving kids in Africa or something. The rice they used was _really_ good which I think defeated the purpose since a lot of kids looked forward to it, myself included. catholic school 1978-1991. I remember the rice bowls but no actual rice. No pagan babies, just “for the hungry”, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/8 "2014-05-24T01:58:47Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’m 34. I went to a Catholic grade school from 1984 to 1994 and have never heard the term. The only money we collected in little paper boxes was for UNICEF and to be perfectly honest, I’m not even entirely sure what UNICEF is. UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund. I Googled it because of my conviction that it was an acronym and I just couldn’t quite figure out what the E stood for. But they do a lot of things for children like provide food and clean water and mosquito nets. I don’t believe that UNICEF worries about saving souls. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/9 "2014-05-24T02:48:48Z")
“Ransom a Pagan Baby” (late 1950s). Hooo, yes. Somewhere in the beachhead dump of stuff I call a filing system I have an adoption certificate which states that our class rescued some poor benighted child from the toils of Satan. If memory serves, it shows a black child being led by a (white) boy and girl towards a (white) Jesus, while two (white\*) nuns look on approvingly. In the background it shows mosques, pagodas, etc, all the better to drive home the horrors we’d saved him from. \*One of them may have been slightly Asian, but that was pushing things in those days. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/10 "2014-05-24T02:55:09Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > “Ransom a Pagan Baby” (late 1950s). Hooo, yes. > > Somewhere in the beachhead dump of stuff I call a filing system I have an adoption certificate which states that our class rescued some poor benighted child from the toils of Satan. If memory serves, it shows a black child being led by a (white) boy and girl towards a (white) Jesus, while two (white\*) nuns look on approvingly. In the background it shows mosques, pagodas, etc, all the better to drive home the horrors we’d saved him from. > > \*One of them may have been slightly Asian, but that was pushing things in those days. Bingo, and thanks. I think you had to be in Catholic school around 1960 or earlier to have been exposed to the term “pagan babies.” I’d forgotten that the rest of it was to “ransom” them. I specifically remember this from eighth grade in 1960. Pretty danged patronizing, offensive concept it was, too. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/11 "2014-05-24T03:31:36Z")
I’m 50, and though I’ve heard the term “pagan babies” (mainly in books by people a little older than me) , it wasn’t used when I was in Catholic school from about 1969-77. Of course, we collected money in the little paper boxes " for the missions" and I seem to remember something about either the school or each class "adopting"one of the mission children. Same thing, just a more PC name. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/12 "2014-05-24T03:33:05Z")
I remember my Grandparents joking about it in the '70s. I had my little yellow UNICEF box, and they asked if it was for the “Pagan Babies”. Band Name!! I seriously want to start a band now, just so I can name us that. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/13 "2014-05-24T04:06:37Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I’m 50, and though I’ve heard the term “pagan babies” (mainly in books by people a little older than me) , it wasn’t used when I was in Catholic school from about 1969-77. Of course, we collected money in the little paper boxes " for the missions" and I seem to remember something about either the school or each class "adopting"one of the mission children. Same thing, just a more PC name. I remember hearing the term too when I attended parochial school (mid 1960s), but by then it had been replaced by the UNICEF boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/14 "2014-05-24T04:10:19Z")
Oh, yes, I remember raising money to save pagan babies. I think it went to the missionaries (the seminary for The Society of the Divine Word was just two miles or so away, and we were taught by the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Ghost). I am not the age you’re looking for, though, because I am \> 50. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/15 "2014-05-24T04:15:19Z")
Over 50, attended Catholic schools from 1970-77 in Latin America. Never heard the term. However, this 2012 article from _Catholic News Service_ might be of interest: [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202140.htm](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202140.htm). ETA: and then there’s this blog from someone who is completely unapologetic about their participation in the program: [Ask Sister Mary Martha: ANNOUNCING! The PAGAN BABY REUNION!](http://asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com/2006/08/announcing-pagan-baby-reunion.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/16 "2014-05-24T04:28:07Z")
Catholic mom and grandparents here. Mom went to catholic school in the midwest in the '60s, and I remember her mentioning Pagan babies in some context when I was a kid. I also seem to recall mention of it in some dimly remembered memoir I read years ago about growing up catholic. I knew immediately what you were referring to even though we never went to church & I went to public school. ETA, not such a dimly remembered memoir after all; google remembered it for me. [Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?](http://www.amazon.com/Patent-Leather-Really-Reflect-Classics/dp/0829421432/) ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/17 "2014-05-24T04:32:37Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > When I was in grade school prior to ~1961 in Catholic school, we collected money (our little pittances of coins) for some vague, needy group covered by the catch-all term “pagan babies.”\* “We’re collecting money for the pagan babies?”\* As I recall, there were little paper boxes that we saved our coins in and then turned them in to someone periodically. Anyone else do this? When did this extremely non-PC term stop being used? > > Who were these _pagan babies_, and did any of the pennies we contributed ever help any of them in any way? Were they some mythic group like the starving kids in China, Hungary, Elsewhere who would have been happy to have your brussels sprouts? > > Bonus question: Did children in Europe collect coins for the pagan babies? Or for the poor, underprivileged kids in the USA? In Scotland, around 1966 or so, there was something similar in primary school (which one attends from age approx 5 to approx 12, and this school was not R.C.), and its name was even weirder - it was collect money to feed “the Black babies”. OK, fair enough, it was about charity for this or that African country, but it so much stank of colonialism. With touching little pictures of hungry children. _EDIT_: On second thoughts, I think that was \*\*not \*\*an official school thing, but kids bringing in this charity appeal from their church thing. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/18 "2014-05-24T04:33:54Z")
Or maybe [Pagan Babies: and Other Catholic Memories](http://www.amazon.com/Pagan-Babies-Other-Catholic-Memories/dp/0743453271). Both ring a bell. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/19 "2014-05-24T09:52:09Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I remember my Grandparents joking about it in the '70s. I had my little yellow UNICEF box, and they asked if it was for the “Pagan Babies”. > > Band Name!! I seriously want to start a band now, just so I can name us that. You’re too late. A friend of mine, from back in the 80s, played guitar in a band with that name (weird thing about that is, he’s Jewish). If you want, you can contact the director of music programming at Hawaiian Public Radio, and ask him if he’s still using it, though. His name is Seth (pretty sure he still has that job, but it can’t hurt to check). Anyway, I attended Catholic grade school from 1962 - 1970, and we collected money for pagan babies during Lent. Every time we got 5.00 together, we got to buy and name a pagan baby. We'd all suggest names, and then vote for the one we liked best. Two stories I recall from those days: one boy in my room kept bringing in UNBELIEVABLY large amounts every day (.75 here, $1.16 there). I could never shake the idea that he was stealing it (but I guess that suggests more about my character than about his). And once, the guy who considered himself the smartest kid in the class proposed the name Jean-Pierre. It was pretty obvious he was showing off his flawless French accent. Weird, the kind of memories we carry over from childhood, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130/20 "2014-05-24T11:48:58Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund. > > I Googled it because of my conviction that it was an acronym and I just couldn’t quite figure out what the E stood for. It used to be a full acronym - United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. They changed the name because it had grown beyond the initial “save the war-torn orphans” mission. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-dopers-age-50-does-the-term-pagan-babies-ring-a-bell/689130.md?page=2)