Why the faithful should not pay

NOT a single cent should be provided by parishioners to compensate for the criminality of clerical sex abusers.

Responding to the clerical sex abuse issue is fundamentally a matter of accountability by abusers and those with oversight of them and the collective vicarious responsibility of the Pope and the bishops of a country.

If the necessary resources to compensate are not available in one diocese, then they need to be found by those responsible in some other part of the church, either in Ireland or elsewhere. The idea of burdening lay people who have no influence whatsoever on church governance with such obligations is treacherous in its implications.

If innocent parishioners were to be so gullible as to go along with this request the moral hazard attaching to bishops would be very quickly redefined. Bishops would become mere choreographers, traffic cops, facilitating transfers of cash from one direction and uttering empty shibboleths in another.

There would be no compelling need for apologies or the resignation of bishops in circumstances where the public become compensators of last resort. Everything would be suitably muddled from the perspective of bishops when third parties bear the burden and the boundaries of the doctrine of mental reservation would become infinite.

Myles Duffy

Bellevue Avenue

Glenageary

Co Dublin