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	Bishop of Ferns's Call for Assistance The Irish Times March 4, 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2010/0304/1224265557492.html Madam, – Going to the parishes is but “one” option the diocesan finance committee has put to parish finance committees in response to some requests from individuals within the diocese as to “how we might help” to complete the work of justice and healing (Home News, March 3rd). Nothing definite as to how to proceed on the issue of the source of funding for future claims has yet been decided in the Ferns diocese. The diocesan authority is continuing to consult members of the diocesan family as to what direction they think should be taken from here. This process happens each year at the annual finance AGM. At no time was anything but a consultation, or an invitation to further engagement and discernment, proposed. It may very well be that a decision will be taken to dispose of one of the diocesan assets – but that will only occur after the conclusion of consultation over the coming months, and perhaps years – with churchgoers. The work of justice continues with a view to ensuring provision exists for the person who comes last, as much as for the person who came first. The diocese continues its work of engagement in healing and reconciliation with those who have suffered, as has been permitted and requested. All of the above was clarified to any journalist who spoke with the diocese to date. – Yours, etc, Rev JOHN CARROLL, Diocesan Communications Officer, Ferns Diocese, Summerhill, Co Wexford. Madam, – Please allow me to express my astonishment upon reading the statement by the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan. It attempts to dictate to us, in the same way the Inquisition did, how Christians should behave, saying directly that it would be anti-Christian of us to feel the church should pay its own bills, for its own abuse, with its own billions, which it throttled from our grandparents, whom they also abused physically, emotionally, psychologically and sexually. Evidence of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, according to the Murphy report, can be traced back as far as AD 320 and the first treatment centres for paedophile priests, according to Colm O’Gorman, were opened worldwide in 1940 under the name Servants of the Paraclete. I would like to know exactly whose idea this plan was and from where issued the instructions or permission to make such a statement. The statement and its attempted manipulation of good Catholic people could be described as unbelievable, stupid, even comical. But, in my opinion, the only word that does it justice is evil. How long do they expect us to restrain ourselves? We have put up with this bull-dung for hundreds of years. A true Christian is someone who, in any given situation, is supposed to ask themselves “What would Jesus do” and try to do that. How an organisation that has acted decade after decade only to preserve its business interests, above the interests of children, can feel it has the right to dictate to anyone what Christians should do, is beyond belief. From the Pope down, through the Vatican, and therefore through the lower echelons, the whole organisation, in my belief, is utterly anti-Christian and evil. As proven by centuries of torture, bloodshed, burnings, terrorism, and coverings-up of “the worst crime” known to man. If Jesus Christ is to be seen in the vulnerable of this world then all they have done is to crucify the man over and over again. If Christ were here, he would be burning down the Vatican, and I, for one, would be helping him. – Yours, etc, SINEAD O’CONNOR, Strand Road, Bray, Co Wicklow. Madam, – Catholics gain tremendous spiritual benefit from membership of the church. We hope for salvation through the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, head of the church, and we rely on the constant intercession of the saints in heaven, the church triumphant. I strongly believe we should also be willing to stand in the breach for the sins committed by the institutional church, even those as terrible as sexual abuse of children. We are either members of the church or we are not. We should be willing to take the rough with the smooth, secure in the belief that the good done by the church, both spiritual and material, greatly outweighs the harm, even the harm as grievous as has been entailed in the sexual abuse of children. So I support the call of Dr Denis Brennan, bishop of Ferns, for contributions from the laity to defray the cost of compensation to sexual abuse victims. – Yours, etc, COLM FITZPATRICK, Castleknock Vale, Laurel Lodge, Castleknock, Dublin 15. Madam, – It is utterly disgusting and despicable that the parishioners of the diocese of Ferns should be asked to dig into their own pockets to supplement the costs of clerical child sex abuse. It is a new low for the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland. – Yours, etc, DAVID WILKINS, Putland Villas, Vevay Road, Bray, Co Wicklow. Madam, – Perhaps the diocese of Ferns could try selling indulgences to raise money? I am sure that there would be queue of bankers, developers and politicians to avail of the facility. – Yours, etc, JOHN WILSON, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin. Madam, – At almost 60 years of age, I am hanging on to my religion by the skin of my teeth in the present spiritual climate. I am a Catholic and I have always had a problem with the wealth of the Catholic Church. Indeed, a recent longed-for visit to Rome, severely tested my faith. But now I think I have an answer. The good Lord, in his wisdom, knew that the church, some time in its future, would require vast sums of money to pay legal costs and compensation to the victims of clerical abuse. The Vatican houses at least 20 museums and public art centres. The contents of the gallery of maps or the Vatican Egyptian museum alone, would, for example, easily cover Ireland’s costs. A bit of housekeeping – moving stuff to cover the gaps – would sort out the aesthetics, and Bob’s your uncle. Who knows, a few years of stripping back the Vatican’s art collections might even reveal what it’s all about. Would someone let Bishop Dennis Brennan in on the secret and tell him to leave the ordinary decent people of Ferns with clear, untroubled consciences. – Yours, etc, RITA CRAMPTON, Courtown Park, Kilcock, Co Kildare.
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