Price of failure

CATHOLICS should not contribute to any special
collections organised by dioceses in financial trouble as a result of
having to pay large sums to victims of clerical sex abuse, a government
TD has urged. 

Fine Gael’s Tom Barry made his comments after it
emerged that the Dublin archdiocese is near to financial collapse and is
considering introducing a levy on mass-goers to bolster its reserves,
having paying out €13.5 million in abuse claims.

Mr Barry, who
lives in Killavullen in the Diocese of Cloyne, said hard-pressed
Catholic families should not have to pay for the failure of the
hierarchy to prevent some priests from abusing children.


Instead, Mr Barry said the Catholic Church could easily foot the bill
itself by selling off one or two of the treasures it possessed in Rome.

"The Church also has huge assets in this country as well which it could sell off," he said.


Mr Barry, a Catholic and a married father of three who regularly
attends Mass, said he would urge all Catholic families to tell their
priests and bishops that if money needs to be found to replace funds
paid out to clerical sex abuse victims, then it must come from the
Church itself.

"As a practicing Catholic I have absolutely no
objection to providing money for the genuine upkeep of churches and I
would regularly contribute. I have no problem putting my hand in my
pocket for such things.

But already cash-strapped families
shouldn’t have to contribute to a shortfall which resulted from pay-outs
to abuse victims because of failings of the hierarchy," he said.


He echoed the criticism Taoiseach Enda Kenny famously made on the
role of the Vatican in its handling of clerical child abuse in this
country.

"It is the whole system of the [Catholic Church]
hierarchy which is the problem. They shouldn’t isolate that problem to
Ireland. Therefore, any shortfalls in diocesan funds here should be made
up by the Vatican," Mr Barry said.

He was also highly
critical of the way in which retired Bishop John Magee handled the
fall-out from clerical sex abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne.

Bishop Magee left his house in Mitchelstown prior to the publication of the report and only returned a few days ago.

Bishop
Magee issued a statement on Monday in which he said he accepted full
responsibility for the failure of the diocese to effectively manage
allegations on child sexual abuse.

Source