Cost of Sexual Abuse

Cost of Sexual Abuse.

    In Ireland there were over 72,000 men and women to date paid by the Irish Catholic Church for their sexual abuses while in the care of the Irish Catholic Church. A lengthy report detailing cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children over 70 years was published on 20 May 2009. The report, The Ryan Report, The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Ireland, drew on the testimony of nearly 3,000 witnesses, men and women who attended more than 200 Catholic-run schools in Ireland from the 1930s until the mid 2000s. As per 2002 agreement between the victims on one side, 72,000 men and women and the Roman Catholic Clerics and Irish Government on other side, all those who accepted the State/Clerics settlements, had to waive their right to sue both the Irish Catholic Church and the Irish Government. Their abusers' the Irish Clerics, who insisted that their identities were to be kept secret. Additionally the Irish Catholic Church secretly paid out hundreds of Millions of Euros compensation for child sex abuses, of other children not covered by The Ryan Report - in all cases the powerful Irish Catholic Church has always refused to admit liability. 

    You can’t put a price on how much damage the Roman Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals have done to the victims. But you sure as hell can count how much the Church has paid out as a result of those lawsuits. Since 1950, the amount comes out of nearly $6 billion has been paid out by the Roman Catholic Church world-wide. And that’s an underestimate since we still don’t know how much was spent for therapy for the victims, help for the offenders, and the creation of “safe environment” programs.Here in Ireland, the Irish Catholic Church and the Irish Government has incurred nearly 1.5 billion Euros in costs related to the Irish Clerics sex abuse crisis during the past 65 years. In addition, separate research recently published calculates that other scandal-related consequences such as lost membership and diverted giving has cost the Irish Catholic Church another few million Euros for the past 25 years. Up until now, "nearly 1.5 billion Euros" has been the most widely cited figure by media, academics and activists for the cost to the Irish Catholic Church for Clergy sex abuse and its cover-up. Academic researchers shows that figure is far too low, probably by as much as a hundred million Euros -- and perhaps much more.

Settlements with nondisclosure or confidentiality restrictions are not included in the results. It is also estimated that nearly 1,550 secret cash settlements payments have been made with the victims and the Irish Catholic Church since the 1960s. Irish Media rarely report routine financial data related to sex abuse, purely because the settlements are in secret. To many experts the figure of 1,550 secret cash payments are the tip of the iceberg and that the figure is probably much higher. 
    In addition to this there are hidden other costs like for example, the cost for therapy for victims 10 to 12 million Euros per year. Support for offenders another few million Euros, Legal fees, another few million Euros. Then there are child protection efforts, including training, background checks, safe environment coordinators, and other measures, another few million Euros, and for "other costs," a designation covering such items as abuse investigations, insurance premiums, emergency assistance for victims and monitoring service for offenders, another few million Euros. So it all adds up, the Dioceses of Dublin for example keeps a Law Firm busy, 24/7 full time, with two dozen or more Lawyers and Senior Barristers, and 46 supporting staff at great cost sorting out legal problems of Clerical abuses. As a way of illustrating the magnitude of the costs to the Irish Catholic Church, there are  26 dioceses in Ireland, each of the 26 dioceses in Ireland, have their own legal law firm, that my friends is a lot of money and lots of Clerical sin.  In attempting to compile as thorough a record as possible, articles surfaced that provided some insight into why it is impossible to ever get a complete picture of the secret settlements in Ireland, the Irish Catholic Bishops have ordered all legal documents and documentations, shredded, that it ordered the documents destroyed because those legal documents "showed how much money the Irish Catholic Church had spent on treatment, litigation and secret settlements related to sex abuse of children within all the 26 Irish dioceses. It is probably impossible to calculate the effect such great financial losses have had on the Irish Catholic Church's ministries and outreach programmes, but the losses both financially and spiritually, plus the loss of its absolute moral authority are and will be enormous for the Irish Catholic Church, to bear, to the future generations of Irish life and Irish people for decades to come. Owen Felix O’Neill