Ireland’s top Roman Catholic prelate has apologised for the “horrific evil” of sex abuse involving thousands of children placed in the care of clerics in residential institutions.Archbishop Sean Brady told a Saturday service for abuse victims he could not “adequately apologise to all those who have been hurt while they were entrusted to the Church’s care” over the last 70 years or more.
“Nothing can ever make up for the terrible wrongs that have been done. But what I can assure you of is my absolute determination to try to change things for the better,” said the Primate of All Ireland.
“I still find it difficult to understand and feel a great shame that some of those who should have been most trusted, some of those who should have protected children, committed such horrific evil and crimes against them,” added Brady, due to be made a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI next month.
Brady’s sermon comes as new figures from the government reveal that the final compensation bill for people who suffered abuse as children in care may rise to 1.16bn euros.
A five-year old Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) received claims for compensation from 14,540 men and women who say they were abused in institutions that were funded by the state but were mainly run by the church.
They included schools, orphanages, hospitals, reformatories and children’s homes. The amount of compensation being awarded to victims is based on weightings for the severity of the physical, sexual and emotional abuse they suffered and the effect it had.
The RIRB compensation body is running in parallel with a major judicial inquiry into abuse allegations dating back to the 1930s.
In answer to a series of parliamentary questions Education Minister Mary Hanafin said last week that claims from 7,290 victims dealt with up until the end of last year had involved expenditure of 564mn euros.
“The average award to date is approximately 70,000 euros with awards ranging up to 300,000 euros. At this point it is estimated that a provision of another 600mn euros may be required to meet the remaining award, administration and legal costs of the board."
“This would bring the total cost of the scheme to an estimated 1.16bn euros,” Hanafin said.
Some victims have ignored the RIRB and have taken their claims to the country’s courts.
In a controversial 2002 deal with the government, the liability of 18 Catholic religious congregations who managed the residential institutions was capped at €128million with the church paying in cash, property and counselling costs.
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