The Bishop of Ferns is turning to the parishes in his diocese to help meet the cost of clerical abuse claims.

The diocese has so far made 48 settlements, costing a total of over €8.1 million, while there are 13 civil actions still being processed.

Bishop Denis Brennan says seeking funding from the parishes is not about sharing the blame, it’s about ‘asking for help to fulfil a God given responsibility’.

Abuse survivor Colm O’Gorman says he’s keen to hear the response of parishioners.

“Bishop Seamus Hegarty tried this a couple of years ago in Derry, when he was looking for a percentage of every mass collection to go towards these costs” he said.

“Parishioners roundly turned on that and rejected it completely and, as far as I know, he had to abandon that”.

“I think it’s a very fair point; people are going to wonder ‘Why are we being asked to contribute to this?”

“I’m interested to hear that the Bishops see this as a God-given responsibility – well it’s not actually, it’s a legal responsibility” he added.