Alliance Support Group


ARCHIVES: For older news items, please visit the news archives.

Nine dioceses yet to indicate sex abuse trust contributions

Added on March 29, 2005


Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
29/03/2005

Nine of Ireland's 26 Catholic dioceses have yet to indicate how much they contributed to the church's Stewardship Trust and how this money was raised.

All nine are in the Republic and include the archdioceses of Tuam and Cashel & Emly.

Trustees of the Stewardship Trust, which is responsible for paying the cost of compensation and services to victims of clerical child sex abuse, are the four Catholic archbishops in Ireland.

These include the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, and the Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford.

The remaining dioceses yet to disclose are Achonry, Ardagh & Clonmacnoise, Meath, Kildare & Leighlin, Killaloe, Cashel & Emly, Ossory, and Cloyne.

In a statement, a spokesman for Cloyne diocese, Fr Jim Killeen said Bishop John Magee, "intends to make a statement to the priests and people of the diocese on all aspects of the Stewardship Trust shortly after Easter.

"Until he has done this he does not wish to make any public statement on the matter."

A spokesman for the Killaloe diocese sent forward a copy of a press release for the diocesan 2002 accounts.

It does not include a figure for Killaloe's contribution to the Stewardship Trust in 2003, nor does it contain figures for what the diocese contributed since.

The Bishop of Achonry, Dr Thomas Flynn, has refused to give details of the diocesan contribution to the trust or indicate how this was raised.

The latest dioceses to give such details are Ferns and Killala.

The diocesan secretary for Ferns, Fr John Carroll, said the contribution from Ferns to the trust in 2004 was ? 123,270.

"This money was sourced from borrowings," he said.

He added that the diocese was "currently engaged in an audit of its fixed non-parish assets with a view to discerning how they may be be utilized in assisting the diocese to meet its obligations as it journeys towards justice and healing".

He said the intention was "to communicate the results of such discernment with the priests, religious and the people of the diocese as the results begin to emerge."

The practice in Ferns was to hold an agm of the diocesan finance committee which members of parishes and half parishes in the diocese attended, he said. The last agm took place on November 17th, 2004.

"Undoing the wrongs and hurt of the past by whatever means are available remains - and will continue to be - the number one priority in the diocese," Fr Carroll said.

The secretary at Killala diocese Ms Anne Forbes forwarded details from there at the request of Bishop John Fleming. She said Killala had contributed ?60,809 to the trust to date.

"The source of this funding was the accumulated interest on diocesan assets invested by the bishops of Killala in the past. No parish monies or levies have been used for this purpose, and the capital investment has not been touched.

" The monies used are assigned for use by the bishop at his discretion," she said.

She added that "a process of consultation on this issue has begun in the diocese.

"The diocesan finance committee, which consists of lay and priest members, discussed this matter and recommended the use of these monies on the grounds that they were accumulated in the past and should be used for the pastoral care of issues which arose from the past."

She said that the council of priests in the diocese decided at a recent meeting that the issue should be considered at a conference of the clergy in May.


? The Irish Times

Home |About Us |Our Services |Online Resources |Family Tracing |News |Forum |Donate |Contact Us