A spokesman for Cardinal Seán Brady has insisted that parish funds will not be used to fund settlements made with victims of abusive priests, such as Fr Brendan Smyth, who sued the cardinal.
Brendan Boland sued Cardinal Brady over his handling of the case in 1975 when, as a young priest, he took evidence against Fr Smyth of abuse but failed to pass the information on to the civil authorities and the priest went on to abuse for almost 20 more years.
The High Court in Dublin was told last week that the case had been settled for an undisclosed amount.
However, The Irish Catholic understands that the amount paid out is expected to be in the region of €60,000.
Speaking on behalf of the cardinal, Martin Long of the Catholic Communications Office insisted that the pay-out would not be funded by contributions from parishioners.
''It didn't come directly or indirectly from parish plates. People would contribute over the years to the Archbishop of Armagh. People regularly would bequeath in wills and even just contribute to the running of the diocese and that is at the discretion of the archbishop, it's the same in every diocese,'' he said.
However, the fact that the money has been used to fund this payout means that vital pastoral services cannot now benefit from funds originally intended for that purpose.