Priests pay €340k from own pockets to shore up diocesan finances

THE priests of the Catholic diocese of Killaloe have been forced to pay over €340,000 from their own pockets to shore up the diocese’s finances.

Accounts for the diocese for 2009 and 2010 were published yesterday and show the priests have personally contributed €343,913 to its coffers over the two years.

The priests are expected to make a further contribution of about €170,000 this year.

One individual — who wished to remain anonymous — donated €100,000 to the diocese in 2009.

The accounts also disclose payments by the diocese to victims of clerical sex abuse in 2009 and 2010 totalled €428,162, bringing to €2.24 million the amount paid by the diocese to victims of past sexual abuse since 2003.

However, the priests’ personal contributions arose from the global financial crisis. Prior to the crash in 2008, the diocese had relied on dividends from shares to fund its operations.

Priests have an annual salary of between €22,000 and €27,240 and on average over 2010 and 2009, each of the 90 priests in the diocese contributed €3,821 to the diocese.

In 2008, the diocese generated €468,521 from its investments — 42% of its income. The accounts show that last year, the monies from investments or dividends had collapsed, falling 89% to €50,988.

In a statement accompanying the accounts, the Bishop Of Killaloe, Dr Kieran O’Reilly, praised the priests for “contributing extremely generously from personal funds a total of almost €172,000” in 2010.

Parishes across the diocese have also responded to the Church’s financial troubles by increasing their total contribution from €559,725 in 2008 to €812,050 in 2009 and €795,595 last year. This saw the diocese record a surplus of €93,941 in 2010, compared to a deficit of €22,403 in 2008.

Bishop O’Reilly said the surplus from 2009 and 2010, together with further savings, “will make it unnecessary for the contribution from priests to have to continue in the short term”.

One of the priests to contribute was Fr Brendan Quinlivan, who said yesterday that the priests “were very happy to play their part. They have responded very generously.”