Price of failure

CATHOLICS should not contribute to any special collections organised by dioceses in financial trouble as a result of having to pay large sums to victims of clerical sex abuse, a government TD has urged.

Fine Gael’s Tom Barry made his comments after it emerged that the Dublin archdiocese is near to financial collapse and is considering introducing a levy on mass-goers to bolster its reserves, having paying out €13.5 million in abuse claims.

Mr Barry, who lives in Killavullen in the Diocese of Cloyne, said hard-pressed Catholic families should not have to pay for the failure of the hierarchy to prevent some priests from abusing children.