Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) spoke out after it was reported that 25,000 euro has been donated to a convicted paedophile priest from Co Donegal.

The money is believed to have been donated to Fr. Eugene Green - currently serving a prison sentence for child sex abuse - by former parishioners who do not believe he is guilty, despite his guilty plea.

Greene (80) was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2000 after he pleaded guilty to 41 charges of sex abuse against at least 26 boys – many of them altar boys – between 1962 and 1985.

The charges were spread over a large number of parishes in Co Donegal.

VOTF says the donation brings “notoriety and shame” to the Catholic Church and underlines the misconception that Catholics “superstitiously believe that priests are incapable of sin.”

News of the donations has provoked a furious reaction from relatives of sex abuse victims.

Voice of the Faithful spokesman Sean O’Conaill said the donations compounded the suffering of many survivors of “the self-confessed child rapist”.

Mr O’Conaill said: “It strengthens the false impression that Catholics superstitiously believe that priests are incapable of sin and that we do not care if our neighbour’s children are violated, degraded and brutalised.

It gives the green light to clerical abusers when the cleansing of the church is essential if it is to heal itself.”

Prolong pain

The VOTF spokesman said if Greene kept the money it would increase and prolong the pain of sex abuse survivors.

He called on former Bishop of Raphoe – the current Bishop of Derry – Dr Seamus Hegarty and current Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, to come to the support of victims.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church’s central press office said the issue was a diocesan matter. A spokesman for Dr Philip Boyce said the bishop was away.

He said the Raphoe bishop was unlikely to comment as the donations were not something he had knowledge of.