Secular Café: RCC losing support in Ireland

Secular Café Discuss atheism, religious apologetics, separation of church & state, theology, comparative religion and scripture.

RCC losing support in Ireland Jun 6th 2012, 12:39 http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Cat...157178905.html Quote: The Irish people have given up on the basic principles of Catholicism according to a new survey. The latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll shows that the majority of Catholics in Ireland no longer attend Mass. The survey also says that significant numbers 'do not believe' in key elements of the church's teachings. The poll results have been published by the newspaper to coincide with the 50th Eucharistic Congress of the Catholic Church in Dublin this week. But never mind; the church is still sitting on billions' worth of property. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...317368627.html Quote: The assets owned by the State's 26 dioceses and 160-plus congregations and other distinct Catholic organisations have been accumulated over more than two centuries of providing religious, educational, health and other services to a once devout populace. The property is held in trust by an array of organisations that now share similar challenges arising from declining and ageing memberships. Many congregations of nuns, brothers and priests have property portfolios running into tens and hundreds of millions of euro, with average ages for their memberships well past the normal age of retirement. Most have put in place lay structures through which they hope the assets will continue to be used for faith-linked purposes when the congregations themselves have all but withered away. They have done this while seeking to ensure they retain sufficient resources to look after the welfare of their members, many of whom need nursing care... ...Damages and redress to victims of abuse at the hands of religious, whether diocesan priests or members of the independent congregations, is an issue that could have bankrupted some congregations were it not for the indemnity scheme granted by the State in 2002. After the landmark 1999 States of Fear documentaries by the late Mary Raftery, the State set up the Residential Institutions Redress Board. The government entered into an indemnity agreement with 18 congregations whereby they would contribute €128 million in cash, property and counselling services, with the State picking up the rest of the redress costs. However, the costs have proved to be much greater than were earlier envisaged. The latest estimate from the Department of Education is that the redress costs will be about €1.5 billion. In the wake of the 2009 Ryan report, the government asked the congregations to increase their contribution to half of the estimated final cost, but to date the amount being offered is well short of that. The congregations have offered a further €350 million – about €270 million short of what the Government believes they should pay.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions