Self-interest a betrayal of victims

The revelations that the Catholic Church had insurance cover for clerical sexual abuse for the best part of almost 20 years, exposes a cynical exercise in self-protection and a callous indifference to the wounded victims it now purports to care about.

It has also emerged that for the past four years the Church has had at its disposal a fund of more than €10 million for providing for settlements arising from such claims.

Since 1987, with the knowledge of what was transpiring in Canada and anticipating that the scandal of clerical child sexual abuse would also inevitably erupt in this country, the Church made provision for its own financial well-being.

What may not have been anticipated was the extent to which the festering scandal would rock the country, nor the colossal amount of claims it would face once the silence was shattered.

The Church, or those who condoned a policy inimical to the greater good, stand indicted for deliberately and persistently prevaricating about the problem, its extent and the poor mouth it presented when faced with claims for compensation.

Such disingenuous conduct has given rise to fundamental questions from Catholics who are disturbed at the way the Church has handled this scandal.

The fund of over €10m resulted from settlements to the Church by Church & General Insurance Company, of which the bishops are a nominal shareholder and Allianz is the major shareholder.

That arrangement was arrived at in 1996, after issues about the right of dioceses to indemnity, under the policies of insurance then in place, arose. Between then and 1999, sums amounting to the total in the fund were paid over to the hierarchy, who established a trust.

While most dioceses individually took out indemnity as far back as 1987 for potential claims against priests working in those communities, following on the agreement with the insurance company, the extraordinary situation now exists whereby there is no insurance for cases arising before 1996.

While individual parishes are still legally accountable for settling claims, they may apply to the central trust, but that also funds child protection and other victim response initiatives undertaken at national level by the Bishops Conference.

Given the raft of claims the Church faces, and those that have not yet surfaced, it is patently obvious that the fund is pitifully insufficient, especially in light of the reputed figure of €300,000 received by Mervyn Rundle recently.

The diocesan property and other assets which the Church controls was at one time estimated to be worth in the region of €3.8 billion, but an up-to-date audit should inform them of their collective realisable wealth.

The Church has given an assurance that bishops will fulfil their responsibilities insofar as claims for clerical child sexual abuse are concerned, and whatever assets they have must be made accessible to them for that purpose.

Already the taxpayers of this country face a possibly gigantic bill because of the secret deal between the religious institutions and the Government.