As Bishop of Ferns I want to thank you for your commitment to your parish and indeed to this diocese and to assure you of the commitment of the priests and of myself to ensuring that ours is a diocese where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is heard, where the wrongs of the past are corrected, where room for healing can happen, and where an environment exists that will ensure the Christian flourishing and verifiable safety of our young.While we look to the future, we cannot ignore the past.
The diocese pursues an open policy approach in all aspects of its dealings with the issue of abuse involving some of its priests, and it is grateful for advice and support as has been received to date, from within the diocese, and beyond.
Last Monday (1st March 2010), at our 10th Annual AGM at Enniscorthy, as full a picture as can be given of the current financial situation in the Diocese of Ferns was presented and how abuse by some priests - which has brought shame to us all - has affected the overall financial well-being of this diocese.
We have not shied away from ensuring that every victim who presents themselves are helped and cared for in a just manner. To ensure that this continues, we are examining a number of ways to pay for this and we are asking for your advice in a process of consultation. The options at present are:
1. The sale of one - or more - of the five diocesan properties to meet all of the costs of outstanding claims and legal bills.
2. The non – involvement of parishes in the outstanding claims at all.
3. The discernment as to whether parishes might be willing to fund the development of current and future child protection infrastructure and staffing.
4. The desire - as may exist in parishes - that diocesan assets not be sold at all, or only in part, and a consideration as to how this might be achieved and whether it would then necessitate the involvement of the parishes themselves.
5. Suggestions from parish finance committees and parishioners that may not yet have been either proposed or considered.
Let me be clear, those who abused children need to accept responsibility and their guilt is theirs alone. Many of us priests are shamed by their actions and by the often inaction of Church management to deal with this. We can never change the past.
Let me be also clear, no monies from parish collections have been used to date to fund the payment of compensation claims as have been agreed and no plans are either in place – or envisaged – where future claims would be funded from these sources.
However, we have the chance to make a difference for the future.
I want to listen to the response of the people from all the parishes as to how best we shape our diocese into the future.
The twelve months ahead are a time when we might engage more fully in this process.
I thank you for your kind consideration and I remain available to what response you may wish to make directly, or through the more collective voice, of either your local finance or parish committee.
Yours sincerely
+Denis Brennan
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