Two of the mainstream churches have not covered themselves in glory to date when it comes to taking the views of their congregations into account.

Tomorrow the Presbyterian General Assembly will hear pleas from investors who face a hefty financial hit following the travails of the Presbyterian Mutual Society. Nearly 10,000 savers were affected when the society went into administration last November.

The Presbyterian Church, which has no legal ties with the society, has been sympathetic to the plight of those savers, but has steadfastly declined to offer any financial aid.

What particularly irks those hit by the collapse of the society is that many of them were exhorted from the pulpit to invest in the body. In the good times it seemed like a good idea and a belief that the Church would stand by them at all times took hold subliminally.

Of course the Church never said it would bail out anyone who got into financial difficulties and it cannot legally be forced to do so. Yet the savers feel they have been short-changed by the Church, which encouraged them to save in the society and then turned away when the investments went belly-up.

I am sure there will be angry words exchanged at the opening session of Synod when the savers have their say. But the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is probably not that wealthy and has a lot of other commitments which it is legally bound to honour.

It is doubtful if the savers will get anything more than reassurances from the Church that it continues to press the government to |include the society in some sort of bail out.

But the government is also quite adamant that the society’s problems are not its problems.

However, the reaction of the Presbyterian Church to the plight of investors pales into insignificance compared to the way the Christian Brothers’ Order is reacting to the Ryan report into the abuse of children over three decades in the Republic. The children suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse in Catholic-run institutions, including some run by the Christian Brothers.

Now there are calls for the Brothers to give those who were abused extra compensation. This could involve selling off property owned by the Brothers. To date the Order has been reluctant to take that step or to make further reparation for the sins of former members.

Given the scale of the abuse, the length of time over which it was carried out and the number of abusers who were known but |allowed to continue with their evil perversions, it would be natural to assume that any organisation which was party to that abuse would be doing everything in its power to show its sorrow and to help the injured parties.

That, unfortunately, does not seem to be the case.

While the current hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been forthright in its condemnation of what happened in the past and has proclaimed its deep shame and sorrow at those events, there is no reason why it should stop at that.

The Catholic Church, either in Ireland or worldwide, cannot claim to be poverty stricken.

Its congregations throughout history have been generous in building up parish infrastructures and there are many treasures in the vaults of the Church.

However the Church raises the money — and the Order should start selling property if it needs to — it must add to the compensation given to victims of clerical abuse. Reparation is necessary for forgiveness and the Church and its Christian Brothers must rustle up the cash as soon as possible.

The Churches often preach about the immorality of chasing wealth, but, as organisations, they are often reluctant themselves to give any of their own wealth away.