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.