France 24
March 4, 2010
http://www.france24.com/en/20100304-irish-star-slams-evil-church-appeal-over-sex-abuse
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| Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, seen here in 2007, condemned as "evil" Thursday a bishop's call for parishioners to help pay compensation for victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland. |
AFP - Irish singer Sinead O'Connor condemned as "evil" Thursday a bishop's call for parishioners to help pay compensation for victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland.
Bishop Denis Brennan appealed for financial help this week saying settlements of 48 cases so far have cost 10.2 million euros (13.8 million dollars) and 13 legal actions are still pending.
O'Connor said the suggestion was an "unbelievable and stupid" attempt to manipulate "good Catholic people."
"If Christ was here, he would be burning down the Vatican. And I for one would be helping him," the controversial singer said in a letter to Irish newspapers.
Brennan, bishop of Ferns in southeast Ireland, made his appeal on Tuesday in a diocesan finance report, saying "I would be grateful for whatever ways you might be able to help me.
"It will be necessary to invite the parishes to become part of the process financially," he added.
Long an outspoken critic of the Catholic authorities, O'Connor asked: "How long do they expect us to restrain ourselves? We have put up with this bull dung for hundreds of years.
"A true Christian is someone who, in any given situation, is supposed to ask themselves what would Jesus do, then try to do that.
"How an organisation which has acted, decade after decade, only to protect its business interests above the interests of children can feel it has the right to dictate to us what Christians should do is beyond belief," she said.
A series of state judicial reports revealing the extent of clerical abuse and attempts to cover it up by church authorities has rocked the mainly Catholic country.
O'Connor's biggest hit was a haunting version of the Prince song "Nothing Compares to U".
The singer has hit the headlines for a number of controversies over the years.
She caused anger when she ripped up a picture of the Pope John Paul II on the US TV show "Saturday Night Live" in 1992.
In 1999, an Irish "rebel" bishop ordained her in Lourdes as a priest in the controversial Latin Tridentine Church. Subsequently, she styled herself as "Mother Bernadette Mary".
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