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	Time They Paid for Their Sins Cori Must Emerge with Its Hands up and Its Chequebook Open before the Wounds of Abuse Victims Can Start Healing By Andrew Lynch Herald May 26, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/opinion/comment/time-they-paid-for-their-sins-1750984.html This is not going to go away. That is what the 18 religious orders -- who signed the notorious Woods Deal in 2002, and are now clinging to it as a drowning man clings to any kind of lifeline -- need to get through their heads. They are responsible for shielding the perverts and sadists who carried out the child abuse that has brought monumental shame on this country -- and, one way or another, they are going to pay for their sins. Bankruptcy Almost a full week since the publication of the Ryan report, the refusal of CORI to face up to reality is shocking. Despite everything that we now know about the sickening crimes that were carried out on their watch, they still insist that they won't renegotiate the agreement under which they are due to pay less than 10 per cent of the €1.3bn bill that has been foisted on a state hovering on the edge of bankruptcy. The Bible says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven, but clearly these particular men of the cloth have decided that they'll take their chances. Since filthy lucre seems to be the only language the Christian Brothers and their colleagues understand, here are a few facts they might consider. One of the Ryan report's starkest findings was that the worse the religious orders treated the children in their care, the more money they made. The entire system was constructed so that the less they spent on food or clothing for their pupils, the more they had to stash away in their own bank accounts. Payback In other words, the priests, nuns and brothers who took a vow of poverty have been milking the State for decades -- and now it's payback time. Who exactly will these people listen to? The two most senior Catholic churchmen, Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, have told them that they have a moral duty to stump up more cash. If the Pope intervenes, will they tell him it's none of his business? In fact, asking the Vatican to get us off the hook by signing a big fat cheque would be a waste of time. As the Archbishop of Boston reportedly told the Irish ambassador to Washington, "Rome does not give a damn about Ireland -- it does not have the money." Just as the US Catholic hierarchy forced some dioceses to declare bankruptcy in order to pay their compensation bills, we have to find an Irish solution to an Irish problem. That's why the Government now needs to take a clear moral stand on this issue, even if it means admitting that they made a mess of the 2002 negotiations that ended up giving the religious orders such a sweetheart deal. Once again, Brian Cowen has misread the mood of the country by adopting a cautious approach that suggests he would like the whole affair to go away as quickly as possible. Image If an image is somehow created that Fianna Fail are still so in thrall to the Catholic church that they're prepared to become apologists for child abuse, then it is not inconceivable this could end in a general election -- just as Albert Reynolds was forced to resign in 1994 after allegations that his government suppressed the file on a paedophile priest. Right now, the ball is still very much in CORI's court. For years they have chosen to lecture the political system on its responsibilities to help the poorest and weakest in society. Now they find themselves in a situation where legally they may have a case and morally they haven't got a leg to stand on. The sooner they come out with their hands up and their chequebooks open, the sooner their victims' wounds can begin to heal.
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