Madam, - As I said, my question of March 24th was indeed naïve, but not so naïve as Father Iggy O'Donovan's reply of March 27th.
Is he not aware that the Church in which he is a priest is one of the richest organisations on earth - that it actually owns things, including artefacts, of considerable monetary value?
It would not be necessary for, say, a sold artefact to leave Italy, as he seems to think: the Church and the Italian nation are not synonymous.
Perhaps it has occurred to Father O'Donovan that, according to the teachings in which the child abusers purport to believe, it is the duty of those who covered up their abominations to make restitution ("compensation") to their victims.
I see no reason why the Irish taxpayer, or anyone else, should pay for their crimes. - Yours, etc.,
JAMES MURPHY,
The Pigeons,
Athlone,
Co Westmeath.