The people of Ferns didn’t cover up, didn’t move abusing priests, didn’t indulge in any of what Bishop Denis Brennan brazenly calls ‘mismanagement’ – yet they are asked to pay, writes MARY RAFTERY

SINCE THE turn of the century, brave little Ferns has been the pioneering diocese. It was the first where the revelations of clerical child sexual abuse caused enough public outrage to force the government to become involved.

The inquiry which followed was the first of its kind in this country, and the first time the State had so directly interfered in the affairs of the Catholic Church. The Ferns report which followed was the initial volume of the now trilogy of reports (with Ryan and Murphy) into the lethal damage caused to tens of thousands of Irish children by the institutional Catholic Church in this country.

It follows that it is a reasonable assumption that what is now occurring in the Ferns diocese will apply shortly to the entire country.

So far, it is just the good people of Ferns who are being told by their bishop where their duty lies – namely to contribute personally to make up the shortfall in funds needed by the diocese to compensate victims of child abuse.

No matter that they as parishioners damaged no child, transferred no paedophiles from parish to parish, covered up no abuse, hid no shameful secrets. Their bishop, Denis Brennan, has harsh words for anyone who might entertain such thoughts: “That I did not cause the problem is not the response of the Christian,” he intones in his message to the faithful yesterday.

To most of us, this is a brazen case of trying to have your cake and eat it. Successive bishops behave disgracefully, wantonly expose dozens of children to unspeakable assaults, refuse consistently to accept responsibility for their gross negligence, and then tell their flock that it is their duty as Christians to pay the price of compensation to victims out of their own pockets.

Should the people of Ferns consider accepting this proposition, and complying with their bishop’s definition of what constitutes a good Christian, it might be worth their while to give some thought to the current attitude of the diocese of Ferns to its past sins against children.

Bishop Brennan’s statement yesterday was instructive in its use of language. Indeed, all such public utterances from bishops repay close analysis of the language used. The problems which caused the diocese’s current financial difficulties are now defined as “the actions of individual perpetrators along with mismanagement, poor understanding and/or lack of resolve”.

No mention at all of unpleasant words like “cover-up” or “criminal negligence”. Five years after the Ferns report, the diocesan authorities clearly felt it was safe to take out the air-brush.
...
...

Ten years ago, the religious orders of Ireland squealed that they had no money and so the State bailed them out in the now infamous church/State deal on redress for survivors of institutional abuse. The total bill here will be around €1.3 billion, of which the taxpayer is shelling out well over 90 per cent as the religious orders laugh all the way to the bank with a paltry contribution.

But lo and behold, in the wake of the entirely damning findings of the Ryan report last May that these same religious orders presided over reigns of unimaginable terror within their institutions for children, the nuns and brothers have been shamed into discovering a few hundred million more within their coffers to dispense to those they so badly damaged.

...
...

Most people have little doubt that the institutional church, either nationally here in Ireland or by calling on Vatican assistance, could perfectly easily shoulder the relatively small amounts required to compensate abuse victims in Ferns.

There is, however, one other possibility – perhaps one could even call it an opportunity. For a relatively small amount (perhaps amounting to the compensation shortfall), the Department of Education could purchase from the diocese of Ferns any land it owns on which schools are located.

This would clear up – at least in one part of the country – the legal morass surrounding the ownership of the education infrastructure. At present, the State has, through its direct investment, a considerable ownership stake in most school buildings. However, the land on which they sit belongs in the main to the Catholic Church.

complete artikel