Darn!
We were this close to getting rid of these guys forever, but alas they have been rescued from the dustbin of history – at least for now.
BOSTON — Voice of the Faithful, the lay Catholic group founded during the church’s clergy sex abuse scandal, has raised enough money to keep operating for now.
The Massachusetts-based group sent a letter to its members last week, saying its financial situation was so dire that it might be forced to close its Needham headquarters unless it raised $60,000. On Tuesday, the group said its plea raised more than $63,000. The money will be used to pay operating costs for July and August.
The group hopes to raise additional money so it can continue to operate long-term.
On another note (or maybe not) If you got into the priesthood in Ireland for the money, you chose poorly.
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Irish Roman Catholic priests in the country’s second-biggest diocese took pay cuts of about 10 percent after church investments in bank stocks dropped as much as 7 million euros ($10 million).
The Killaloe diocese, which covers parts of the midlands and west of Ireland, cut salaries by between 8 and 12 percent, after shares fell and bank dividends were eliminated, Willy Walsh, the Bishop of Killaloe, said in an interview with Ireland’s RTE radio today.
Ireland’s ISEF Index of financial stocks has fallen 93 percent from its Feb. 2007 peak, as the banking system last year came close to collapse after the real estate prices tumbled and credit markets froze. The government has nationalized Anglo Irish Bank Corp., and pumped 7 billion euros into Bank of Ireland Plc and Allied Irish Banks Plc to help save the lenders as bad debts surged.
“All of us thought that bank shares were a safe as possible place to put money,” Walsh said. “Obviously in hindsight, they weren’t.”
July 22, 2009 at 1:19 pm
"The money will be used to pay operating costs for July and August."
And after that? This was a drastic, short-term measure, and it was all they could do to succeed with it. July is almost over, and they need to be thinking about life after August right about now. Then another desperate plea will go out.
On one hand, VOTF has inspired a number of individuals at the local level to initiate support groups for victims of clerical abuse. They have also worked at the state level to overturn statute-of-limitation laws that get some predators off the hook. On the other hand, those laws don't always apply, say, to public schools, where physical abuse is much more likely to occur (as it did with my son, who was attacked by his coach in a locker room).
On the down side, they assume they are the only ones doing what they're doing, and that a vote against them is a vote against solving this problem. We don't hear from victims who have been ignored by the leadership because they don't qualify as VOTF "poster children." And we don't hear of VOTF's early support for individuals who support "consensual sex" between adults and children — when presented with evidence, they ignored it — and they don't admit to early support of a priest who skimmed $75K from parish coffers for his personal use.
On a national level, VOTF's leadership is inherently dishonest with its local affiliates, and with the public. With this recent financial pinch, they are being dishonest with themselves.
July 22, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I doubt that the Irish clergy will starve, all the same. Those of us who have good priests looking after us look after them in turn.