THE cost of running the work of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference last year was €2.6m, according to figures obtained by the Irish Independent. The conference, which is held three times a year in Maynooth as a kind of ecclesiastical government, is attended by the leaders of the 26 dioceses in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Until now, the finances of the Irish Catholic Church have been shrouded in secrecy.
But in a weekend statement issued exclusively to the Irish Independent, a spokesman for the bishops confirmed that costs involved in the operation of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference, its agencies and commissions amounted to €2,646,814 in 2007.
The conference enables the bishops to exchange views and share experiences in order to promote the common good of the Church in Ireland.
It is run by a small secretariat from offices in the national seminary of St Patrick's in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
The €2.6m does not include the annual budget turnover of each diocese, some of which are published annually. Nor does it include a breakdown of compensation payments made by dioceses to victims of clerical sexual abuse. And it does not include the annual 'Peter's Pence' collections made by each diocese for the charitable work of Pope Benedict XVI.
But the costs include the influential commissions and agencies, which are organised and directed under the control of the bishops.
Some of the money goes towards the expanding range of pastoral activities as well as internal educational and doctrinal projects.
Jails
Funding is used to provide assistance to asylum seekers and refugees, migrants and Irish prisoners in jails overseas.
It funds a chaplaincy for the deaf, and finances a new nationwide strategy to prevent young people becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Resources are also spent on conducting specialist research into policy areas of concern to the bishops such as bioethics, European Union developments, justice and social affairs.
Trocaire, the bishops' overseas aid agency, is funded through its collections, public relations promotions, government grants and charitable support.
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(Source: II)