Ongoing religious scandals

Indo wrote:

The Government wanted the religious orders to pay half of the total bill of €1.4bn needed for redress payments and legal costs. But so far the value of the asset handover is still a long way short of the €700m the State is demanding. School buildings, convents, vestries, playing fields and associated lands across Ireland are included in the list. The highest value property handed over was grounds in Merrion, south Dublin, valued at €8.9m.

Documents sent to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) by Sean O Foghlu, Secretary General of the Department of Education, show that the properties were handed over "under the terms of the 2002 Indemnity Agreement". According to his letter, which has been seen by this newspaper, the department agreed in principle with the Conference of Religious in Ireland to take control of 64 properties. These properties have been accepted "subject to good and marketable title and agreed valuations. This number has been reduced to 61 as the department has accepted and received a sum of cash in lieu of three properties where good and marketable title could not be established," Mr O Foghlu wrote.

According to the documents, apart from the significant site at Merrion, eight other properties worth more than €1m were surrendered. They include a Terenure secondary school valued at €4.5m; St Teresa's convent at Temple Hill in Blackrock, valued at €3.1m, and a Traveller site also in Blackrock, which was valued at €3.1m. Other significant properties handed over included two separate properties in Tuam, Galway, valued at €3,020,000; St Anne's Secondary School, which was valued at €2,600,000; Holy Cross Gardens, Killarney, Co Kerry (€1,270,000); 23 Parnell Square, Dublin (€1,270,000); and Goldenbridge Group Homes, which were valued at €1,269,700.

As of December 31, a total of 44 properties have been transferred to the department and "there are no outstanding issues," Mr O Foghlu said. The 44 properties, he said, represented two-thirds of the total monetary value of all properties being transferred under the Indemnity Agreement, excluding the cash in lieu settlement. The documents went on to state that 17 properties have not yet fully transferred and "arrangements are being finalised".

"As it was likely that nine of the remaining properties would not meet the standard of good and marketable title required by the 2002 agreement, the Government agreed in 2013 that such properties could not be accepted," Mr O Foghlu said. He said his department was engaging with the office of the Chief State Solicitor, who in turn is dealing with lawyers for the religious orders as well as the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The total cost of offering redress to the victims of abuse has soared to almost €1.4bn. Under a controversial 2002 indemnity agreement, 18 religious orders which ran care institutions pledged to contribute €128m in cash, property and counselling services towards redress costs for abuse survivors. However, they later agreed to contribute €352.6 million for victims of institutional abuse. So far they have paid less than a quarter of that.

[...]

Irish Mirror wrote:

More than 7,000 babies and children died in Ireland’s mother and baby homes during the last century, new documents reveal. But the real figure is likely to be much higher as records do not include miscarriages or stillbirths.

In some cases, babies who survived only a few hours were wrongly registered as stillborns to avoid registering the birth and the death. Now documents shown to the Irish Mirror by Paul Redmond, chairman of the Coalition of Mother And Baby Home Survivors, reveal the true extent of the shocking loss of life.

The figures relate to the nine “official” mother and baby homes with the number of women and girls estimated to have gone through these institutions at between 25,000 and 27,000. Records show at least 7,150 infants lost their lives and many are buried in designated Angels’ Plots inside or near the grounds of the homes.

Ahead of the upcoming inquiry, Mr Redmond demanded the outrageous death rates be acknowledged. He said: “I want to see memorials for all of them. There are several Angels’ Plots throughout the country of various sizes. We want to see it acknowledged.

“My group Adoption Rights Now have been asking for a long time that ownership of all the Angels’ Plots be handed over to trust committees of natural mothers and adoptees. We believe we are the only people who are fit to look after them.”

[...]

Irish Times wrote:

Religious congregations who have failed to make promised payments to cover their share of institutional redress costs have blamed the shortfall on fluctuations in the property market. The orders claim that their property assets have suffered a 30 per cent drop in value since 2009. Correspondence between the congregations and the Department of Education, obtained by The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, shows religious orders are taking a firm line against further contributions that would meet the Government’s target of an equal sharing of redress costs.

The congregations have to date lodged €81.44 million in the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund through cash payments and proceeds from property sales. A further €42 million of property has been transferred to State ownership, leaving the congregations more than €300 million short of pledged contributions. To pay their half-share of the redress bill, as sought by the Government, the congregations will have to meet these existing commitments and come up with a further €245 million in cash or property. The cost of the redress scheme for institutional child abuse is estimated to reach €1.45 billion.

Daughters of Charity
The Daughters of Charity has in recent weeks made a further cash contribution of €1 million to the fund, but it is still €7 million short of its pledged contribution. According to the department, the order has said this would be difficult to meet “without serious damage to the future of the congregation”. The Presentation Sisters order has paid €4 million to date.

However, plans to hand over premises in Fethard, Co Tipperary, to the Health Service Executive (HSE) have stalled, during which time its valuation has fallen from a 2009 price tag of €1 million. In a letter to the department, the congregation said: “If the value of the property has changed since our offer was made and accepted, we cannot take responsibility for fluctuations in the property market.”

Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy similarly pointed to falling property prices for its shortfall. In 2009, the order offered cash of €20 million and properties worth €107.5 million. While the cash payments have been made, most of the properties have either failed to achieve their valuation or have been held up by legal problems. Of 18 properties prepared by the congregation for sale, 11 had been sold by last October. These included a convent in Cobh (valued at €1 million but sold for €246,747); Ardagh Demesne, in Co Longford (valued at €2.2 million but sold for €1.35 million); and a former convent in Dundalk (valued at €500,000 but sold for €180,714).

Overall, the Sisters of Mercy said the order had achieved only 65 per cent of the €6.7 million valuation made in 2009 for the 11 properties. The congregation also agreed to transfer 13 educational properties, valued at €19.6 million, to the department, and four health properties, valued at €61.3 million, to the HSE. These include the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. All of these transfers are part of a €352.6 million commitment in funding made by the congregations following the publication of the Ryan report in 2009.

An additional €128 million was pledged by the congregations under a 2002 indemnity agreement with the State. This agreement included cash contributions of €54 million, which have been met, and the transfer of 61 properties, 44 of which have been achieved.

Indo wrote:

Surviviors of institutional abuse have expressed outrage over Government plans to seal all major industrial school and orphanage investigation records for 75 years. The move, which also allows for the possible destruction of documents, must now be ratified by the Dáil in a bill which will be brought forward by Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan.

The Irish Independent has learned that the bill has been approved by Cabinet for drafting. The Retention of Records Bill 2015 will provide for the strict and confidential sealing of documents from the Commission into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Review Committee.

Tom Cronin of Irish Survivors of Institutional Abuse International said abuse survivors were "shocked and horrified" that the records would be sealed for so long. "I can understand that these documents are sensitive and that they might need to be sealed for a period of years.

"But why seal them for 75 years? Why not seal them for five or 10 years? By the time they can be accessed again, everyone associated with this most shameful period of Irish history will be long dead. The whole thing won't be anything more than a footnote in history by 2090," he said. [...]

Herald Sun wrote:

CARDINAL George Pell may have unwittingly helped protect Australia’s worst paedophile priest by moving him between parishes and covering up his evil crimes, it had been alleged. In explosive allegations before the royal commission into sexual abuse this morning it was alleged the high-ranking Cardinal sat on a committee that protected notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale.

Ridsdale, who has spent decades behind bars, has admitted molesting at least 54 victims but it has been estimated he molested more than 200 children while being shuffled around parishes. Cardinal Pell has persistently denied knowing the extent of offending by notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale before he controversially accompanied him to a court hearing in 1993.

But the commission heard this morning he sat on a committee in September 1982 that considered Ridsdale’s offending when deciding to move him on. Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness, SC, said the then Fr Pell was one of seven people at the meeting, including Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

The minutes of the meeting noted Bishop Mulkearns as advising it had become necessary for Ridsdale to be moved from the Parish of Mortlake, with negotiations underway to move him to NSW. “The minutes do not disclose what the Bishop said about why it became necessary,” Ms Furness said. “However, as indicated earlier, it is expected that there will be evidence that Bishop Mulkearns knew it was because Ridsdale had abused boys in Mortlake, and that he had offended in this manner in 1975.”

[...]

Cardinal Pell, who now minds the Vatican finances, accompanied Ridsdale to court in 1993 sparking outrage from victims. “At that stage nobody knew, at least I certainly didn’t, the extent of what proved to be an infamous career,” he said later. “I knew there was a very significant number of offences, I didn’t know the details of those offences. I knew that Ridsdale was pleading guilty. His lawyer asked me to appear in court before him.”

Cardinal Pell lived with Ridsdale in the early 1970s but claims he as not a close friend of his.

[...]

USA Today wrote:

A Michigan pastor, who has publicly railed against gay marriage, has resigned from his post after being outed by the gay and lesbian entertainment website Queerty. The Rev. Matthew Makela made the announcement on Sunday in a letter to the congregation at St. John's Lutheran Church and School in Midland. His resignation became effective Monday.

According to screenshots obtained by Queerty, Makela was soliciting sex from men on Grindr, an app geared toward gay, bisexual and bi-curious men. The married father of five reportedly confirmed the authenticity of the screenshots to Queerty but declined to comment. The article also included a screenshot of a Facebook post opposing gay marriage that Makela wrote in September that read:

"Read these words this morning: 'Long before gay marriage was part of our national discussion, natural marriage did not always reflect God's will of love and submission. Divorce became common, love in marriage grew colder and children were not always seen as a blessing. Changing the culture begins with changing our culture of marriage and family, taking the marriage union with the utmost seriousness and welcoming children in our church.' AMEN!"

Makela told Queerty that he resigned from his position after the story surfaced and that his wife and senior pastor were aware of his activity on the app. In a letter posted on the St. John's church website, the church's senior pastor, the Rev. Daniel Kempin tells parishioners that Makela "has acknowledged that there was sin and repentance, and I have testified that there is indeed forgiveness through the same Lord who forgives all our sins." He goes on to say, "To make matters worse, though, the details of sin that have been kept confidential are being posted online by those who seek to do harm to the Makela family and to St. John's."

Makela's bio was removed from the church's website Monday afternoon.

[...]

Kivaro wrote: »

Josh Duggar quits Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying organization, after molestation claims.