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	Footing the Bill for Abuse By Eilis O'hanlon Irish Independent May 31, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/news-gossip/footing-the-bill-for-abuse-1756675.html With apologies to Noel Coward's famous post-war anthem about the Germans, the Irish right now really need to adopt a new slogan: "Let's Not Be Beastly To The Catholics". It's true that the Church has behaved abominably, but we're in the middle of the worst economic crisis to hit this country since, well, forever, and this isn't the time to go alienating those who are clearly financial geniuses. These people actually managed to make a profit out of abusing children. First by getting the State to hand them millions of pounds in old money to, ahem, "look after" vulnerable kids. Then, by doing a deal which saw them walk away scot free at the end, while their victims, now grown up and paying taxes, had to foot the billion euro-plus bill for their own redress. It's like the Nazis sending the Jews a bill for cleaning up Auschwitz after they left. To put it into perspective, the Catholic Church paid less for abusing children for decades than Michael Jordan recently had to give his ex-wife in a divorce settlement. The basketball player should have had nuns negotiating for him instead of Hollywood lawyers. The former missus would have ended up owing him money! If the Church can drive such an amazing bargain while so overwhelmingly in the wrong, there are clearly no ends to their financial acumen, and we should be bringing more of them into the heart of Government. The Revenue Commissioners' coffers would fill up so fast, it'd be like the good old days. (Note to Catholic Church: just so we're clear, that's the good old days as in the Celtic Tiger, not the days when you could abuse children and get away with it, OK?)
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