Una Mullally: Pope welcome to visit but must pay own way

Listening to Norah Casey talk about raising €20 million for the pope's visit on Claire Byrne Live, last Monday, I wondered had it crossed her mind to ask the multibillion-euro organisation she's fundraising on behalf of for a dig-out? Just a thought.

I don’t think there’s any argument about whether or not Pope Francis “should” come to Ireland. He’s perfectly entitled to visit, and I think it will be a very pleasant, exciting and inspiring event for Catholics who attend. Whether the Government throws a few bob towards the trip is another thing, but I find it hard to get incensed about the taxpayer contributing a little (emphasis on the “little” as in a few grand) towards the visit a religious leader. Sure don’t we do it for all sorts of folks visiting the country? And a few quid doesn’t really make a difference when we’ll be shovelling any sort of real money into the bottomless pit of banking-Armageddon debt for years. Ireland’s debt currently stands at €200 billion, and we also have the highest rate of debt per person in Europe, and the third-highest per person in the world.

People talk about the moneymaking scheme of Scientology, but in reality, that organisation is in the ha'penny place when it comes to raking in the dough

But ultimately the idea that people would be rattling buckets for an organisation as rich as the Catholic Church is laughable. For anyone who was at Mass at the weekend, a third collection was held. It’s hard not to think of comedian Sarah Silverman’s joke that goes “Sell the Vatican, feed the world.”

People talk about the moneymaking scheme of Scientology, but in reality, that organisation is in the ha'penny place when it comes to raking in the dough. The Catholic Church, as we know, also misleads people about its wealth, as it did in Australia, where it undervalued its property "while claiming that increased payments to abuse victims would require cuts to its social programmes", according to an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald. Sound.

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Money-laundering laws

It is estimated the church has 30 billion Australian dollars (€19bn) worth of assets in Australia, and about €4 billion of property assets in Ireland. The secretive Vatican Bank has $8 billion in assets, according to CNN, and has been at the centre of various corruption scandals, such as when €23 million was seized from it (and subsequently released) in 2010 for violating money-laundering laws. In fact it’s incredibly difficult to really get an handle on how rich the Catholic Church is, as its wealth stretches across the globe including vast property assets, and back to the Vatican where its buildings and artworks are bordering on priceless. Then there are its gold reserves which total over $20 million (€12.8m) with the US Federal Reserve alone, not to mention the weight it flexes in stocks.

Perhaps when the “high-net-worth individuals” and fundraising teams in America are done with raising the €20 million required for the pope’s visit, they might turn their hand to shaking the flock down for the €1.3 billion religious orders in this country owe for compensating the survivors of the abuse Catholic religious orders committed.

Some €209 million has been paid by religious groups, while the Government, aka the Irish taxpayer, has spent €1.5 billion on the redress scheme, inquiries and so on. “As Minister for Education and Skills, I find this hugely disappointing and massively frustrating, that the organisations responsible for protecting children and managing the institutions in which these horrendous acts took place would apparently place so little value on that responsibility,” Richard Bruton said last year.

Phoney victims

Members of the church often say it can be hard to say you’re a Catholic in Ireland, and I always find it interesting when that point of view is articulated. The trope of describing oneself as a victim or oppressed or unfairly subject to criticism when one is associated with an organisation that in fact victimises and oppresses others, is of course a cliched stance. The positioning of the Catholic Church and its members as somehow victimised in Ireland is part of a manoeuvre, conscious or otherwise, to swing the focus away from the actual victims – those who were abused and oppressed by the church – to the phoney victims, the organisation that did the abusing and oppressing, and by association, its members.

Unfortunately for Catholics, and this can be hard to hear, but they do have to own that association. That is what their organisation did, that is what their organisation perpetrated. Faith is also different to a religious organisation, and many Catholics here of course exist in a strange state of expressing contempt for the actions of their organisation, and differentiating it from their faith, which is both a sophisticated and contradictory position. Catholicism is so embedded in our nation’s culture, that it can be difficult for many to envisage their own Christian faith outside its structures, sacraments and traditions.

I’m sure Casey’s heart is in the right place, but to those fundraising for the head of a multibillion-euro organisation to visit Ireland: you have been sold a pig in a poke. The Vatican could pay for the visit in a heartbeat, but instead it will do what it always does, protect its own assets, and ask others to pass the basket.