Church abuse deal absurd
Added on October 28, 2006Saturday October 28th 2006
The Taoiseach's agreement that abuse payments from the Catholic Church in Ireland should be capped at ?127m is as absurd as it is enraging.
With 14,000 abuse victims applying for redress, ?9,000 per victim is a mere pittance in light of the life-long trauma caused by a small but significant number of the Church's moral and spiritual stewards.
How can the Taoiseach insist with respect to an additional ?500m that "the Church does not have those resources"? Surely in a time of Ireland's property boom, the Church could liquidate a portion of its churches and land.
If only the Church could exercise the same creativity it used in covering up decades of abuse, to compensate its victims.
BRYAN MATTEI,
FOLEY STREET, D 1
? Irish Independent