Irish laypeople deplore bishops’ financial opacity, clericalism in managing diocesan accounts

Irish Laypeople deplore clericalism

Title: Irish laypeople deplore bishops’ financial opacity, clericalism in managing diocesan accounts

Author: Cameron Doody

Publisher: Novena News

Date: 22JUN2020

Irish laypeople have deplored their bishops’ financial opacity and clericalism in managing diocesan accounts.

The complaint came in the latest edition of the transparency tables of We Are Church Ireland.

The importance of financial accountability

Taking a leaf from counterparts Voice of the Faithful in the US, the Irish Church reform group publishes periodic reports of diocesan online financial reporting.

As Voice of the Faithful explained in its 2019 audit of US dioceses, “financial transparency can help address an array of problems that emerged within the Church in recent centuries”, one of which being clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.

“If the extent of the financial settlements made by bishops to hide clerical sexual abuse had become known through transparent financial reporting when the abuse reports started breaking long before 2002, lay Catholics would have been aware that the abuse was not a rare exception, but widespread”, Voice of the Faithful recalled.

Voice of the Faithful continued:

“Transparency also guards against fraudulent diversion of donated funds by clergy or by laity. The absence of clear and accessible financial reports, certified by audits, and of properly implemented collection and reporting protocols, makes it much easier to divert the funds donated by the members of a diocese.

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