Well, I don't claim to know the situation in Ireland, but I do know very well what happened in the United States. The Catholic Church in the U.S. paid some two billion dollars in settlements - the going price is now a million dollars per victim. Many of the crimes happened thirty years ago. I know many Catholic church employees who lost their jobs because the church would not afford to pay their salaries. I myself lost my job at my parish in 2005 because my pastor said he couldn't afford to pay me, so I was at least indirectly affected by all this - and I have never directly been aware of any incident of child abuse or molestation. The payment of money hasn't healed any of the victims, and the wrong people are paying the price for the crimes because the criminals don't have enough money to make the payments.

I think the first priority should be to ensure that everything possible should be done to ensure that such a thing doesn't happen again - and that if it happens, that it is dealt with quickly and surely.

With recent offenses, punishment should be swift and sure - and directed at those who were actually responsible. Victims should be given reasonable compensation and immediate treatment - but I'm not sure that bankrupting churches is a worthwhile response to the scandal.

With regard to offenses that happened thirty or more years ago, I think there's a need to weigh the cost of prosecution and compensation, and determine whether there's any value in it.

I think that vengeance and greed and hysteria have guided much of the response to the abuse scandal in the U.S. - and in the end, it the expenditure of huge sums of money hasn't done much to cure the problem. The expenditures have forced a loss of employment for many people (me included), and the closure of schools and churches and social programs. It has made the victims wealthy, but it hasn't cured them. The American bishops have changed their ways and have set up procedures that attempt to prevent future problems. I hope the same will be done in Ireland. However, the cause of the problem still isn't known. We still don't really know why people commit such crimes and how to prevent it.

I think we need to approach this problem rationally and honestly, and without hysteria. That wasn't done in the U.S., and it sounds like it's not being done in Ireland.

-Joe-