Bishop's House for Sale?

THE Catholic diocese of Ferns may be forced to sell off the Bishop's house in Wexford town to finance clerical sex abuse claims far above the average for the rest of the Church in Ireland.

A total of ?2.8m has been paid to 17 victims to date and, with a string of other cases pending the Church is now considering the sale of the Bishop's house, the first time that the sale of a bishop's residence has been considered to compensate clerical sex abuse victims.

The Diocesan Finance Committee met on Wednesday night at a hotel in Wexford to discuss the crippling financial demands and the effect on parishes.

At the meeting, which was attended by caretaker Bishop Eamonn Walsh, the selling of diocesan land was discussed.

Ferns has paid an average of ?164,700 in the 17 cases.

In Dublin, by contrast ?2.5m had been paid out to 38 victims up to last May - less than half the Ferns average. The diocese of Dublin with a million Catholics is 10 times the size of Ferns.

Several victims have been paid from private money held by the priests involved and some of the money was drawn from a compensation insurance fund.

It is also believed the sale of around 20 acres of diocesan property is being considered - near the bishop's residence in Summerhill, at Coolcotts and at Killinick.

The 19th century house at Summerhill was bought by the diocese from the Devereauxs, a prominent sea-merchant family, in the latter half of the 1800s as it was believed at the time to give the best views of Wexford Harbour.

Four bishops have lived there.

If the sale of the diocesan land does proceed -it is estimated to be worth several million euro - it is believed that some of that money would be used on counselling services.

Over the past 15 years Church land sales have included sites at St Peter's College in 1989 for ?252,290 for seminarian education; St Mary's House, Summerhill in the same year for ?77,402 for day-to-day expenditure and the "bull field" in 1990 for ?106,000 for accumulated deficits. It is also understood that the meeting also discussed the contents of the pending Ferns Non-Statutory inquiry report.

Bishop Walsh took over from Dr Brendan Comiskey who stepped down on April 1, 2002 following the BBC documentary, Suing the Pope. He resigned primarily due to his handling of sex abuse allegations against the late Fr Sean Fortune during the 1980s.

A subsequent investigation was set up by the then Health Minister Micheal Martin and chaired by George Birmingham SC. The Non-Statutory inquiry, led by former Supreme Court judge Frank Murphy, has been ongoing for the past 17 months.

Sarah Murphy
? Irish Independent