THE BISHOP of Ferns said he understood the negative reaction to a proposal for parishioners to donate money towards the cost of abuse claims, but he said all of the diocese shared the pain in some way.
Bishop Denis Brennan told South East Radio: “This is such a painful subject for everybody, first of all for the victims, but we all share pain as a diocese as a family in one way or another.
“When I was diocesan delegate for child protection, I used often say to people there is enough pain in this to go around for all of us. So it’s hard to escape the pain of it,” he said.
Speaking on the proposal put forward at the annual diocesan agm on Monday to ask parishioners for €60,000 a year over 20 years to pay for compensation and legal bills resulting from clerical child sexual abuse claims, Bishop Brennan said: “We are listening to the people.”
The meeting on Monday was an “ongoing conversation” and “the beginning of something. It wasn’t by any means the end.
“It’s purely for people to discuss, and think about and talk about, and come back to us with their ideas.”
A spokesman for the diocese said that going to the parishes for donations was just one option that had been put forward.
In a letter in today’s Irish Times, Fr John Carroll said that “nothing definite as to how to proceed on the issue of funding for future claims has yet been decided in the Ferns diocese”. It may also be decided to dispose of diocesan assets, but that would only come after the conclusion of consultation with churchgoers, he said.
A spokesman for Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe said he did not envisage that it would be necessary to ask parishioners there for help in paying debts from clerical child sex abuse claims.
Diocesan communications officer for Killaloe Fr Brendan Quinlivan said almost every piece of property owned by the church had been sold, but “all other avenues would be exhausted” before the option of asking parishioners was considered.
Meanwhile, Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan said he felt “very ashamed” of the crimes of physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by the clergy and the church’s failure to deal with the abuse. Bishop Drennan, who continues to reject calls for his resignation from victims’ groups following the Murphy report, told the Galway Independent: “I feel very ashamed of the failures and crimes of physical and sexual abuse of my brothers and sisters in the church.”
