THE Catholic Church warned  a women’s religious order yesterday to comply with any inquiry into a mass grave found at one of its former children’s homes.

Thousands of bones belonging to as many as 796 children were found in a disused sewage cistern on the site of a County Galway “mother-and-baby home” in 1975.

They were initially thought to be victims of the Irish Potato Famine, but local historian Catherine Corless found in public records that the 796 children had died at the home between 1925 and 1961 and believes most, if not all, were interred in the cistern.

The government is considering an investigation into what it called a “deeply disturbing” discovery at the site of the former home, which was run by the Bon Secours Sisters.

Women who committed the religious misdemeanour of giving birth outside marriage gave their children to such homes, but the “orphans” who died were not allowed a Christian burial.

Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam said that while it did not have any involvement in the running of the home, his diocese was horrified and saddened to learn of the scale of the interment.

“I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death. The pain and brokenness which they endured is beyond our capacity to understand,” he said.

“Regardless of the time lapse involved, this is a matter of great public concern which ought to be acted upon urgently.”

Ms Corless said that some of the dead were as young as three months.

Catholic Church institutions ran many of Ireland’s social services in the 20th century, including mother-and-baby homes where tens of thousands of unmarried, pregnant women, including rape victims, were sent to give birth.

Like the Magdalene laundries for single mothers and girls — which were recently exposed as centres of physical and emotional abuse — the mother-and-baby homes were run by religious orders, but received state funding.