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ARCHBISHOP PUTS WORLD MEETING OF FAMILY COMPANY WITH 4.5 MILLION DEBT INTO LIQUIDATION.

Archbishop moves to put company set up to run Pope’s Dublin visit into voluntary liquidation after loss of €4.5m recorded last year

Gordon Deegan

Pope Francis wishing Archbishop Diarmuid Martin farewell at Dublin Airport as he departs after his visit. Photo: Maxwells

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and others have moved to put into voluntary liquidation the company set up to run the World Meeting of Families (WMF) event last year.

The event included Pope Francis’s visit here and the World Meeting of Families 2018 Ltd recorded a loss of €4.56m last year as fundraising for the various events failed to meet costs.

Archbishop Martin was a member of the board of the company and is one of a number of directors to sign a document lodged with the Companies Office to declare that the company was solvent when being put into liquidation.

The total assets at the time of voluntary wind-up was €71,387 and Jim Hamilton of accountancy company, BDO has been appointed as liquidator.

Pope Francis at the Festival of Families in Croke Park. Photo: Tony Gavin
The voluntary wind-up of the company had been flagged in the company’s annual accounts for 2018 that were lodged with the Companies Office last month.

The directors referred to the voluntary wind-up “in light of the key objectives of the company having been achieved in August 2018” when the WMF event and the Pope’s visit took place.

The directors state that the €4.56m deficit for last year “was in line with cash projections and fully covered by bank borrowings. Fundraising will continue to address this deficit”.

The total spend last year by the company amounted to €18.56m while the total amount raised was €13.99m.

The directors state that the spending remained within the planned budgets throughout the period and that they are satisfied with the work undertaken and completed during the period.

The company, granted charitable status by Revenue, confirm that the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference provided a total of €10.07m in income and €294,062 in services last year.

Pope Francis in Phoenix Park (Brian Lawless/PA)

An additional €1.1m was received in donations from the general public.
The company also generated €107,938 in merchandise income and €338,962 in exhibition income.

A note attached to the accounts states that the ICBC has agreed to meet the company’s liabilities.

The accounts show that event costs, included a concert at Croke Park and a mass by Pope Francis in the Phoenix Park, last year totalled €12.5m.

The events were assisted by 11,000 volunteers and volunteer costs last year totalled €311,635 with a further €819,960 spent on marketing and promotional costs.

An additional €485,804 was spent on liturgy costs and €469,049 on insurance along with €1.4m on staff costs.

The company employed 33 and the highest paid employee earned between €90,000 and €100,000.

The directors state that they are very grateful to the unpaid volunteers who helped with the events and fundraising for the events.

PAT SAYS

Can anyone please explain to me the logic in this day and age,if spending 19 million euros on the visit of just one man . Such an awful amount Of money could feed a thousand of family in a year . Shame on the CATHOLIC CHURCH

89 replies on “ARCHBISHOP PUTS WORLD MEETING OF FAMILY COMPANY WITH 4.5 MILLION DEBT INTO LIQUIDATION.”

Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama cost the state 36MILLION. While Trump/Pence cost between 15-19MILLION.

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Try looking at the amount of money it cost bringing Trump to Ireland, his homophobe vice president on a separate visit to Co Clare recently were no one turned out on the streets to see him. Also look at the costs of bringing the British Queen to Ireland and her huge entourage. When you are at it look at the cost of running the Government plane each year and the many trips taken by the President. On one occasion he couldn’t be bothered with the drive up North so he took the plane instead – dare I go on………? You didn’t contribute 1p to the Pope’s visit so it’s a bit rich you complaining about the costs involved. Your taxes go to a Monarchy in England that spends obscene amounts of money so you should maybe direct your attentions to that instead, afterall you and many others like you are paying for it daily.

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11.50: Brilliant comment. The truth is that Pat fails to ever see his own contradictions. He is morally and ethically blind to his many self righteous, arrogant, self serving narrative. Look Pat into your own contradictions.

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11.50pm Totally spot on. The British Monarch is also Head of State and Head of the C of E Church (what a laugh). Her State visits wherever they occur cost far much more than the Pope. The British Royals will lead to another revolution one day. We know how they dealt with their descendants in Russia. They quickly became Windsors after their German name Saxe-Coburg became too politically insensitive. With the British Queens State visits the UK tax payer pays heavily. For Pope Francis, Catholics are happy to pay voluntarily to the cost. For the Queen they have to pay involuntary whether they like it or not. Major difference.

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11.56: And we seriously need to ask why, especially when so many tickets were sold. Towards the final days of preparation there was a media onslaught which promoted a very negative narrative. Sadly too the Pennsylvania report emerged and the Vigano Letters. The obsession over health and safety turned many away as they were told they’d have miles to walk…etc…Many aspects of the visit of Pope Francis and of the various events and celebrations were wonderful. The truth is, Ireland has changed and there is a huge anti Catholic sentiment which was mobilised before and during the WMOF. We need as a Church to reflect on these issues. The sneering comments from Bucks and his cohorts are unwelcome and childish.

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Ah, now! Come on…no need to be ant- Bucks. Him and his cohorts are doing you guys a big big favour! You just haven’t the eyes to see or ears to hear, as of yet. We live in hope!

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Lol this really is denial.
The pope’s visit was a flop because of health and safety and Bishop Buckley!
Thanks for giving me the best laugh of 2019

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Anon@9:17: “We need to reflect on these issues….” you say. REFLECT! Aye sit on your comfortable clerical ar$e and think about it, for how long? Nero fiddling while Rome burns readily and appropriately comes to mind.
What will YOU do?
MMM

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3:17pm
Hello there MMM.
Begorra MMM I had
to chuckle at your post. Nero must also have had a comfortable ar$e while
on the fiddle. Couldn’t lift himself to do anything but fiddle. Sure, there’s nothing new under the sun.
Bye bye MMM.

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11.56 Maybe a flop for you but not for me.
Was a great occasion for this Country to have a Papal visit.
Look at financial gains it had, millions of euro’s spent in Dublin.
Your blind when it suits you just like Bishop Buckley.

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Pat, shame on you for always pouring buckets of frozen water on all things Catholic. The 100 + parishioners who attended the Papal Mass had a memorable time: others loved the Croke Park concert and thousands enjoyed the various events in the RDS. You couldn’t give a s**t one way or the other. How much do you, personally, and as an Oratory, give to the poor? How many come to your kitchen table for a free meal every day? I think you should ask surgeons for a new heart transplant as the one you have is full of hatred for the Church. Shame on you.

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Did Clogher receive a cash lump sum from Meath Diocese for the Kevin Connolly case. Pat is this in breach of the Charities Act, all this moving of cash from Meath to Clogher and queations over did Clogher give back the cash to Meath . Pat it was more than 5000, the cost was 40.000. Why is Kevin Connolly worth forty thousand euro.

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The 4.5 Million debt is from Diarmuid Martin’s airfares to Rome every week. Most of his priests have to meet him in the airport private lounge if they want a meeting.
✈️ 🇮🇹 🥂

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+ Nichols is the same, always off to Rome, upgraded to Business, and going through the VIP lounge at Heathrow. Whisked by limo to and from the airports at either end. He loves it !

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All senior religious figures are given the same treatment at Heathrow not just Vin Nichols. The same is afforded to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi. I shouldn’t expect Mr ignoramus @ 8.17am to understand that.

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If you calculate the amount of time Diarmuid Martin has actually spent in the Dublin Diocese it amounts to about two years.
It must be hard for him to be away from Tighe for extended periods of time. Retirement is soon approaching.
Ps The wedding was beautiful Pat. You missed a great day out!

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Pat, it doesn’t take you long to recover and traipse back to your cynicism. I often wonder if you have any capacity to recognise genuine and sincere efforts by the Church to be positive, caring and concerned about thevtruth, prayer and spirituality of its adherents. Why do you always feel the need to mock, ridicule and denigrate Catholics? While I was discouraged by the poor attendance at the Papal Mass, I certainly feltbrenewed spiritually by attending events and seminars. There are a myriad of factors to explain the financial shortfall. A genuine debate about such factors would be far more beneficial than your sneering comments, a debate which might enable all of us to define exactly what our faith is about. Your hatred (for all things Cathokic) is beyond comprehension.

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An expensive jamboree.The baa baas will foot the bill. That right, girls? 😆
What’s the game to be played to be ordained? I wanna know!😠

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Oh I can explain it. Keep your mouth shut except when one of your superiors wants to, er, put something in it. A cardinalate will ensue.

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10:59am
Oooh, darling, do tell us more! 👄
I’m fascinated. 🧐
Are there a variety of games depending on the,
er, job to be had?😍

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The retorts against Pat above are interesting, because they use exactly Archbishop Vincent Nichols’s response to clerical sexual abuse.
Thesis: the church shelters and thereby encourages child abuse.
Antithesis: child abuse is a problem in the whole of society.
Thesis: the church spent a shocking amount of money (the liturgy costs alone are ridiculous for items the church must already own) for what is essentially a jamboree.
Antithesis: look at how much state visits cost.
This is very revealing of the mindset of these clerical ‘gentlemen’. Either they think the pope is primarily a head of state, want the church to have a bit of whatever the secular world of politics is having, or just don’t give a shit.
And then they have the gall to complain when they think people are being anti-Catholic!

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FRANCIS ABOLISHES PONTIFICAL SECRET IN CLERGY ABUSE CASES. What ?! You mean that the Church has been able for the last number of decades to continue silence people? Like Brady used to do to young kids who had been abused. Still ? Surely, you would have thought, that this nonsense and injustice would have been stopped decades ago? But no. They have clung on to it as long as possible so that they could hide stuff, cover stuff up, and keep us in the dark. Now, suddenly (yeah !) they have come to the realisation that this might be wrong ! It’s a bit like + Nichols suddenly coming to the realisation of how harmful abuse is to the victims, after decades of knowing what his priests have been inflicting on the most innocent and powerless. And that realisation only dragged out of him when he was SUMMONSED TO GIVE EVIDENCE ON OATH by IICSA. How convenient ! When these Church people and institutions suddenly come to the realisation that there is something wrong with something, as in the pontifical secret matter – and that decades after the rest of us would have made that judgement – you can bet your bottom dollar that they have been pushed in to it, that something is coming down the tunnel that has made them decide to do it. They do not give up useful positions and stances unless they are forced to. So, let us not interpret this as a wonderful intervention of the Holy Father that is generously given, but rather as something that has been dragged out of the Vatican because it now has its back to the wall.
And, here’s another one: POPE ACCEPTS FRANCE AMBASSADOR RESIGNATION. This has to do with the Papal Nuncio to France, Luigi Ventura, him of the wandering hands, accused of sexual impropriety and assault in France, with a predilection for young waiters at diplomatic receptions. This story came to life about a year ago, but the Vatican has sat on its hands until – voila – Ventura reaches the age of 75 and can resign. Rather than addressing the issue directly, they have played for time, so that this man can just disappear in to genteel retirement. It’s a bit like when a policeman is accused of wrongdoing, and suddenly retires, so that the police service cannot discipline him because he’s no longer in the police service. How convenient.
My question is, does the Vatican ever do anything that is not governed by utility, self-interest, coverup, denial, obfuscation, duplicity ? Does it ever do anything in the full light of the day and truth ? Does it ever do anything for the right reason, and because it is the right and honest thing to do ? Seems not ! Mind you, I think we’ve come to expect that from the Vatican, from Bishops, from Priests and from the institutional clerical establishment of the Church. So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. But, I can still feel outraged and angry about it, and call it out.

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Anonymous 19th Dec 2019 — 8:59 am wrote – FRANCIS ABOLISHES PONTIFICAL SECRET IN CLERGY ABUSE CASES.
No. Actually he hasn’t.
What the Papacy has done is remove the AUTOMATIC Pontifical Secret classification that had applied to each and every allegation of sexual misconduct by any member of the clergy.
Read more at – The change to the ‘pontifical secret’ does less than it appears to do ‘
https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2019/12/18/the-change-to-the-pontifical-secret-does-less-than-it-appears-to-do/

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Even so, no matter how limited it is, it has still taken them a long time to get to this point, which says more about their modus operandi than anything else. If it is so constrained as to make it practically nothing, then again it is an indication of how purposeful and careful the Vatican is in protecting itself and its clerics. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

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5.18: Lily the Drink: Baa, baa, baa, 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑go back to your sheep pen or pigsty! Oink, oink….🐖🐖🐖🐖🐖🐖🐖

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9:04
Pink, possum, Lilly the Pink!
Put the specs on 🤓, darling,
before going public making nasty remarks. Have you played the game to be ordained? Pray, tell!
“Go on, go on , go on ……”
I wanna wanna know! 😜😡

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Mother of God the deniers are out in force today.
The obvious cause of the anti-Catholic sentiment and narrative is….
Bishop Buckley?
The cohort of happy rejects who comment here?
Or could it possibly be the behaviour of the Catholic Church?
Poor Father, having wasted your life in service of an institution whose day has passed and which doesn’t provide you with a limo to the airport!

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Is anyone really surprised at the RC church waste of money that isn’t their own. They have done (and continue to do it) for years. Their bishops continue to live like royalty . Most of their priest have housekeepers etc. Where do you stop? It’s just one long big junket at other people’s expense. And as one poster has already said there are those who cannot see it. Maybe they just don’t want to. How many priests/bishops will be visiting food banks this Christmas? The sum total of none. Christmas to them is just a convenient way of raising more money. Charlatans the whole pack of them. Today’s post exposes them even more. They’ll continue to fund raise ( take more money off the poor) to pay for Frankie Boy’s junket. Timbo has gone very quiet.

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I very much doubt you put any money in the church coffers so we will ignore your faux outrage and concern 11.13am. By the way, many priests don’t have housekeepers anymore so your ignorance is also evident. Another disgruntled loudmouth more like.

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11.13: You can’t disguise your hatred. Pity you wouldn’t put as much energy into the many wonderful charities and Parish Groups who reach out to the poor and homeless at Christmas. Pity you wouldn’t be as active with your compassion as with your hatred and faux outrage, for that really is what your ‘concern’ is – faux. It’s obviously you don’t live in the real world. Priests do not have housekeepers anymore, except maybe older guts who need support. More ignorance and disinformation. You stupid, useless haters!!

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“older GUTS who need support!”
Anon @ 12:40: that’s a ‘nail in the head’ of a Freudian slip! Most of the RC clergy, old or young, have a gut from their over indulgent lazy indolent lifestyle. Never seen a slim active and fit RC cleric in years!

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11:50. Lmao 🤣🤣🤣 have I hit a sore point? So easy to call someone a loudmouth for stating the obvious. You say most of them don’t have housekeepers. Mmmm that means that some still do? I work 60 hrs a week and my wife works 40 hrs. We can’t afford a housekeeper or cleaner etc so why should a member of the Romanist mafia have one paid for out of poor people’s money? Your quite right. I wouldn’t put a penny in their coffers. Although I put in plenty before I caught on to their exploits. Keep trying to defend the indefensible . As for faux outrage I’m afraid you are mistaken. I’m absolutely livid at that organisation for stringing generations of my family and others like us along. They will continue to do so whilst there are enablers like you present. Who knows. Maybe you are a beneficiary of the scam. Or if not, an enabler of the scam. Grow up and open your eyes. Your church is rotten from tip to toe and has nothing to do with Christianity. You’ll have to give more if you want the clergy to maintain their lifestyles. Fewer people attending and contributing. Jump out of the ship if you have any sense before it sinks without trace

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12:42, is ‘crackpot’ an adjective or a noun in your comment?
Taxes your brain that one, doesn’t it?

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Bang on @12.20, that’s the real world a place unknown to a lot of posters here who live in their insulated clerical bubble, free accommodation, health insurance etc along with pocket money they work one maybe two days a week with the added bonus of cash paying nixers like weddings and funerals. They wouldn’t know a days work if it jumped up and bit them.

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3.15: Don’t forget – priests are answerable to the revenue commissioners, so we pay out just taxes. I wonder do you do the same or are you a sponger?

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12.20: Don’t know what boat your sailing on but the ship (our church) which I travel on is very welcoming, vibrant and a very joyful community. My children love the family mass every Sunday as do lots of other families. I commend the effort of all involved. I certainly won’t be abandoning this lovely ship….I believe parishioners in their local parish contribute very generously when they witness a genuine effort at creating welcome, inclusivity and good community spirit.

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Ur right. I am a crackpot hater. Definition of a crackpot: those who cannot see and continue to defend the indefensible

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Still don’t understand the question @1:09, if you are also @12:42.
Tells us much about your intellectual capacity and grasp of language.

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1.01: What a blind idiotic fool you are. Keep hating. It will kill you faster than cancer. What a planker you are. Same old, same old tune….

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Another classic derailment technique, frequently used by clergy and Cathbots who post here: ‘you’ re not saying anything new’. Of course not when it’s the same old story.
Actually this sounds like a comment by Fr Passive-Aggressive who posts here frequently, the tone is very characteristic. There is another frequent commenter here who first tells people to go… [to differing destinations], and then either tells them to do something for their parish or says how good his parish is.
Eminently contradictory….

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2.28: You’re as annoying as your imaginary passive aggressive character. Every time you are disgruntled by comments that give a different viewpoint, you try to dismiss their relevance. You rarely if ever make an intelligent contribution apart from your repetitive mantra of name calling. I actually believe that the majority of contributors to this blog are ex seminarians, ex Priests, a small number of unhappy, unfulfilled clerics and a handful of non clerics. Their comments are noticeable by their sameness and repetitive narrative, like anonymous at 2.28! Nothing new or illuminating.

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1.06: Killyleagh, I know you inly discovered that crackpot can be a noun or an adjective! Just asked Google which is obviously what you did, so no great cleverness evident in your question. I suggest you discover the true meaning of thecwird by looming through Google. You’ll learn something new!

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You’re obviously very wise and “know” a lot @ 2:18. Go on: tell us more from your great store of knowledge.

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3.28: Killyleagh, I think.you’d be overwhelmed with too much knowledge…but Google will be of help to you…

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3.17: MMM – What hard bar stool is your lazy arse sitting on as you spill your guinness all over your face? It’s always obvious that you are on a bar stool by the crappy comments you post. The “issues” wouldn’t concern you as an atheist: So MYOB….

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Pat, how about you giving back the house you’ve been squatting in in Larne for the last thirty odd years? Yes, the house provided by the very church you hate. Get your own house and then pour out your vitriol.

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I am not squatting. I am a Licensee for Life in accord with Belfast High Court. Civil Law is obviously not one of your talents.

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5:47. Just in from work and catching up on the blog. (Finishing early today!). Taxes. Yes I pay them in full and also employ 6 people whose taxes are paid in full as well. Are you honestly saying that when a priest gets “a wee envelope” after funerals, weddings, christenings etc that they declare this income? Aye right. I’m personally aware of one parish in a leafy area of Belfast near me where the parish priest is paid quiet handsomely by parishioners for the above. I’d have to reach for the whisky if he could prove that he declares this income. By the way I bought the whisky myself.
Killyleagh Kieran: you must live in an alternative reality. Open your eyes man to this facade that you are trying to defend(not very successfully I must say). The RC church is not about Christ. It’s about money, deceit, lies, abuse and cover ups. Don’t be duped any longer 😁 By your fruits are ye known and God knows we have seen the RC rotten fruit

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6 52: Every funeral undertaker has to account for his expenses with families. In our Diocese all offerings are paid directly into a fund out of which the celebrant get a percentage. The system is agreed on by all undertakers (in the Dublin Diocese) and therefore no money is given directly to any priest. Each priest must then declare such income to Revenue and is traceable as is our salary as it is paid out of a particular fund, all transparent for Revenue. The same arrangement applies to weddings and baptisms. Donations received are recorded and acknowledged and are also traceable for purposes of paying just taxes. Get your facts right, Sir Envious! It’s nice to embellish lies….And no one forces you or anyone to contribute any money to the Catholic Church. Give your money to the poor instead. The “I knows priest” argument is a cliched old chestnut!!!

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@8:12: are you “for real?” You must either be utterly naive yourself to believe it ‘works’ like that, or think we are so totally naive that we will believe you. Face up to the reality that RC clergy have, for the most part, been found to be completely discredited and duplicitous.

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I’m fed up with the ill informed attacks on my Queen and the Royal Household. Yes it costs a lot of money to run the Buckingham Palace show but the amount of income to the Exchequer from tourists and visitors exceeds the expenditure by a multiple of 11.
Whatsmore can you tell me any other person who has worked with such diligence and application all their life and still works at 92.
While her children haven’t lived up to her high standards the Queen has done her best to carry out her duties with dignity.
As for the cost of state visits involving other heads of state it can easily be argued that the UK often benefits from large trade deals from their countries giving employment to people here.
Please spare me the West Belfast blinkered reposts please.

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We are not talking about the costs of Buck House only luv. Let’s see….. Windsor, Clarence House where Charlie lives with Camilla, Kensington Palace where Wills lives, Frogmore, St James’ Palace, Sandringham where Queenie has just fled to in Norfolk today for her Christmas jolly. Oh is that it ….. No! Balmoral in Scotland, Hollyrood where she dragged the Pope to because she was on her hols, then back to London for Hampton Court, Kew and in the North of Ireland- Hillsborough Castle – all owned by the Crown and paid for by the humble tac payer who has no choice in the matter.

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It reveals much about your proclivities Anon@5:19 that your response to something you disagree with is by personal insult, rude language and an assumed association with alcohol. Revealing indeed.
MMM

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You’re so stupid 8:52 you don’t even realise that 8:08’s comment was a reference to YOU assuming MMM was intoxicated by posting what YOU regard as “crappy ” comment. Oh dear! But I ‘spose it takes all sorts!

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It reveals much about your proclivities Anon@5:19 that your response to something you disagree with is by personal insult, rude language and an assumed association with alcohol. Revealing indeed.
MMM

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As long as Rory’s still getting his rent paid plus €25,000 a year allowance, I don’t know what you’re moaning about, Bp Pat. You had plenty consommé laced with port in your younger days too.

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It was marvellous. If reliable reports are to be believed there was not a spare seat – up even on last year’s great attendance.
A modicum of biblical nuance would help you to see that what Michael Mullaney was referring to was the tension in Jewish theology, observable from at least the time of Jeremiah, between, on the one hand, the LORD’s being the God of Israel alone (see Ezra & Nehemiah) and, on the other, the concept of universal salvation, found especially in Deutero-Isaiah. This tension played itself out up to and after the time of Jesus. And, no doubt, Jesus’ position on this and everything else developed with time.
So, major sour grapes displayed on your part in relation to 3 outstandingly-successful and inspirational carol services. And no marks for an infantile, puerile and jejune criticism of the preacher.

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It was marvellous. If reliable reports are to be believed there was not a spare seat – up even on last year’s great attendance.
A modicum of biblical nuance would help you to see that what Michael Mullaney was referring to was the tension in Jewish theology, observable from at least the time of Jeremiah, between, on the one hand, the LORD’s being the God of Israel alone (see Ezra & Nehemiah) and, on the other, the concept of universal salvation, found especially in Deutero-Isaiah. This tension played itself out up to and after the time of Jesus. And, no doubt, Jesus’ position on this and everything else developed with time.
So, major sour grapes displayed on your part in relation to 3 outstandingly-successful and inspirational carol services. And no marks for an infantile, puerile and jejune criticism of the preacher.

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Very brave and daring of Fanny Mullaney to give to his one-off congregation the message that Jesus is a racist. All these people who crowd the college chapel for the carol service – where are they the rest of the year?

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10.09
The exposé at 6.38 seems to have gone over your head.
In Mark 7.24-29 Jesus employs a metaphor from the semantic field of feeding household dogs. A simple metaphor with one point of contact between the figurative and the real scenarios. And an effective one at that – here we are 2,000 years later discussing it.

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