March 23, 2005

The bishops should know that accountability is now expected

IRELAND
One in Four

Opinion - Irish Times

This is no time to spin the truth, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent.

It would be imagined that one of the last areas of human endeavour where you would find "spin", and management of news with a seeming intention to distract from the facts, would be in Church affairs. But this is not so.

Last week's statement from the Irish Episcopal Conference on its Stewardship Trust was issued to this office at 9.28pm on Wednesday night, the eve of St Patrick's Day. Wednesday was the last day of the bishops' three-day spring meeting.

The trust was set up in 1996 to compensate and help victims of incidents of clerical child sex abuse which had occurred up to then. Last Wednesday's statement was the first by the bishops to give details of how the trust's money was spent.

Posted by kshaw at March 23, 2005 08:07 AM