Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Irish religious congregations have offered an additional 348 million euros ($470 million) to compensate victims of abuse in church-run industrial schools. But an Irish government spokesman said that amount, even added to the large sums already paid by religious orders, was still insufficient. The offer from the religious came almost 12 months after a report from the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse revealed that the physical and sexual abuse of children had been endemic in some government institutions run by religious orders. The commission heard from more than 10,000 former residents of the homes who alleged abuse. When the abuse first came to light in 2002, the religious congregations paid compensation totaling 128 million euros. Since the publication of the report in May 2009, compensation payouts from a redress board have increased dramatically and now amount to more than 1.3 billion euros.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Although the IRS recently allowed religious organizations to address their faithful about electoral politics, the Church will not speak on specific candidates.
“We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation.”
A Reflection for the Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Ashley McKinless
Ashley McKinlessJuly 08, 2025
No one ever expected a U.S.-born pope. In this first-ever I “Inside the Vatican” Deep Dive series, those who know him best reveal who Pope Leo XIV—“the American pope”—really is. In Episode 1, we hear from the genealogist who uncovered his Louisiana roots, a teacher, and fellow Augustinian friars
Inside the VaticanJuly 08, 2025