A comment piece written for the Irish Daily Mail in response to reports that the Bishop of Ferns wants parishioners to contribute to the ongoing costs arising from the negligent handling of clerical sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church authorities.

In 1998 I first heard that the Diocese of Ferns had known that Fr Sean Fortune had sexually assaulted children as a seminarian. The story was that he had assaulted a group of boy scouts whilst studying for the priesthood in St Peters College in Wexford. The assault was reported to the church and scouting authorities. The Scouts banned him for life, the Diocese of Ferns ordained him a priest. That was 1979, and Sean Fortune remained in active ministry and continued to abuse until I made my complaint to the Gardai in 1995. Only then, when it was clear that they could no longer cover up the scandal of his crimes, did the Diocese of Ferns act and suspend Fortune from ministry.

The Vatican was also aware of concerns about Fortunes conduct. In the early 1980’s parishioners wrote to the Papal Nuncio to outline their concerns about the errant cleric. The Nuncio responded, writing that the Vatican was aware of their concerns. But the Vatican appears to have done nothing on foot of that complaint.

It was because I discovered evidence of such negligence by Church authorities that I decided to take legal action against the Diocese of Ferns and the Vatican. I did this to try and achieve two important outcomes. Firstly, I wanted to force the church to tell the truth about how they had failed to protect me, and many others, from a known child abuser. Secondly, I wanted to hold them to account for their negligence before the courts. I knew that the State either couldn’t or wouldn’t do so. The only means available to me was a civil suit, through which I hoped to force the Church to face the consequences of its gross failures.

And I succeeded. In 2003 the Diocese of Ferns publicly admitted negligence and agreed to pay me damages.

Yesterday the current Bishop, Dr Dennis Brennan, asked parishioners to help pay the costs of the failure of the diocese to prevent abuse. He wants parishioners to pay for the crimes of the church. The diocese reported that it has paid €10.5m in damages to victims, legal costs and to treat offenders.

It is worth noting that of this €10.5m, just over €8m has been paid by insurance settlements and from non church sources, including €650k from the taxpayer towards the €2m legal bill the diocese ran up in dealing with the Ferns Inquiry. By the way, victims giving evidence to the Ferns Inquiry ran up not a euro in legal costs.

To fund the remaining €2.5m, the diocese used cash reserves and took out a €1.8m mortgage on the Bishops Palace in Wexford. It now wants parishioners to pay half the of cost this mortgage.

Having used insurance settlements and taxpayer’s money to pay eighty percent of the costs, the Diocese of Ferns now wants parishioners to stump up about half of the remaining twenty percent.

It has some nerve. Surely it recognises that it alone should pay for the consequences of its negligence, even if that means the sale of all its assets, including the Bishops Palace?

Better yet, if the Vatican is serious about the survival of the Catholic Church in Ireland, let it dip into its reserves. The people of the Diocese have paid enough and suffered enough because of Church failures. When I sued the Church, it was the hierarchy I pursued, not the people who sit in the pews. At a time when most families are struggling to make ends meet, the Church should stump up for its own failures.

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