On Sunday, the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Alphonsus Cullinan, held a mass for elite donors and students at a new Ave Maria University offshoot in Mount Melleray, Waterford. The Ave Maria University is a private institution based in Florida, USA and functions as a training ground for far-right politicians.
The Bishop has teamed up with an American pizza billionaire Tom Monaghan and wants you to believe the takeover of Mount Melleray is a holy miracle.
But here are the facts they are hiding:
• ZERO EDUCATIONAL STATUS: The Irish Department of Higher Education has not approved or accredited this site as a university campus.
• ZERO PLANNING FOR EDUCATION: The abbey's legal planning status is for hostelry and pilgrim lodging. It has no legal permission to operate as a commercial, international third-level campus.
• A MAGA BEACHHEAD: This is an unapproved, unzoned ideological training ground financed by a US billionaire who funds far-right political lobbying.
If any ordinary Waterford worker tried to run an unzoned, unapproved commercial academy in the Knockmealdown mountains, the Council would shut it down in twenty-four hours.
TAX FREE STATUS
Religious orders in Ireland, including the Cistercians and the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, operate under charitable tax-exempt status.
When they lease a massive asset like Mount Melleray Abbey to a multi-million-dollar American university entity, they are acting as commercial landlords.
Yet, because of their archaic legal status, this transaction avoids the standard commercial taxes that any ordinary Waterford business would have to pay.
THE REDRESS SCANDAL: WHERE IS THE MONEY?
The Irish State has had to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of euros in compensation to survivors of industrial schools, Mother and Baby Homes, and clerical abuse because the religious orders have consistently dragged their feet, hidden their wealth, and refused to fully pay their agreed shares.
While Bishop "Phonsie" Cullinan can roll out the red carpet for 1,000 wealthy MAGA donors and celebrate a multi-million-dollar international lease, the institutional Church claims poverty when it comes to liquidating assets to pay comprehensive, uncompromised redress to victims of institutional abuse.
If any real morality or justice existed in Irish law, a 100% Retribution Tax would be slapped on every single commercial lease, land sale, or property transaction executed by the Catholic Church.
Every single cent generated by leasing Mount Melleray Abbey to Ave Maria University should be immediately seized by the state and ring-fenced directly for survivor support services and unpaid redress funds.