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	Irish Bishop Asks Parishioners to Help Pay Abuse Bill (update1) By Colm Heatley Business Week March 2, 2010 http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-02/irish-bishop-asks-parishioners-to-help-pay-abuse-bill-update1-.html March 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns in Ireland asked parishioners to contribute toward a 10.5 million-euro ($14.2 million) bill for clerical child sex abuse cases. Bishop Denis Brennan wants the donations to help pay a victims’ compensation bill emanating from a 2005 government report into Ferns in south-east Ireland, Brennan’s spokesman, Eugene Doyle, said by phone today. The report found that church authorities in the diocese didn’t protect children from abuse over a three-decade period. “The appeal was made last night and we hope to collect around 60,000 euros a year in donations,” Doyle said. “So far we’ve paid out 10.5 million to victims and to the inquiry.” The Roman Catholic Church is facing a mounting compensation bill for abuse victims after the Ryan Report, published last year, said child abuse in church-run homes in Ireland was “endemic.” The report into Ferns said authorities had evidence that priests were abusing children and failed to take steps to end it. A report on the diocese of Dublin published last year had similar findings, saying that church leaders routinely covered up abuse to avoid scandals. “It’s a bit rich to be asking parishioners to put their hands in their pockets and meet those costs,” Colm O’Gorman, a victim of clerical sex abuse and Amnesty International Ireland’s executive director, told RTE radio in Dublin today. “The Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest institutions in the world.” The Ferns diocese has around 100,000 Catholics and 80 parishes, Doyle said. The request for donations was earlier reported by RTE. --Editors: Dara Doyle, Fergal O’Brien To contact the reporter on this story: Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net
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