Bishops cannot sell ‘protected’ property

CHILD sex abuse victims seeking compensation from the Catholic Church will not have full access to its property porfolio worth billions of euro.

The Church confirmed yesterday it has received a €10 million insurance fund to cover child sex abuse compensation costs before 1996.

But this money will not be enough to cover the number of claims pending. Bishops’ Conference spokesman Fr Martin Clarke refused to say yesterday how each diocese will finance this shortfall.

“Each bishop will meet his responsibility with regard to the compensation,” said Fr Clarke.

Asked if the bishops could sell the valuable Church property in their diocese to compensate the victims, he said: “They cannot use property or money that is protected. It is a matter for each individual diocese to decide how they will pay this compensation.”

Fr Clarke would not say if this property was held in a special trust but he stressed that it could not be sold if it was donated to the Church for a special purpose. He refused to quantify how much Church property was protected.

Funds collected or donated to the Church could not be used to finance the clerical child sex abuse compensation, Fr Clarke added.

Following their meeting in Maynooth on Tuesday, the Bishop’s Conference issued a statement saying the Catholic Church had received €10.6m from the Church and General insurance company to cover the costs of child sex abuse claims before 1996.

But Fr Clarke refused to say how much of this money has already been paid to victims, except to say that a substantial portion of the fund has been paid out.

He refused to give details of how many abuse victims had been compensated and how many cases were pending.

However, Fr Clarke confirmed the €10m insurance compensation fund would not be enough to cover all the claims against the 26 dioceses.

Thefund was placed in trust in 1999 and is administered by a Stewardship Trust.

The fund’s trusteesare Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, Cardinal Desmond Connell, the Archbishop of Cashel, Dr Clifford and the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Neary.