Christian Brothers Say Child Abuse Record Indefensible

By Peta Carlyon
ABC News
May 3, 2013

http://cb.privatbank.ua/

The Christian Brothers of the Catholic Church have apologised to victims for what it calls an "indefensible" record on child sexual abuse.

Leaders of the order's Oceania chapter have given evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse.

Victims and their supporters scoffed and shook their heads as the order ran through its history of dealing with abuse, including several paedophiles at the St Alipius Catholic School in Ballarat in the 1970s.

The order admitted it spent $980,000 on the most recent court case of Brother Robert Best, who remains in the congregation despite more than 20 convictions, while it had spent $1.5 million in total on all offenders.

The order's Brother Julian McDonald has made an official apology on behalf of the church.

"Far too many Christian Brothers have betrayed the sacred trust placed in them and sunk to the depths of abusing children is a matter of great shame for us," he said.

"It's diametrically opposed to all that we proclaim and for which we stand."

The order says it has received 266 complaints of child sexual abuse in the last 80 years.

Inquiry chair Georgie Crozier asked province deputy leader Brother McDonald to explain how so many notorious paedophiles, including Best and Gerard Ridsdale, could have been allowed to offend for so long at the St Alipius Catholic School in Ballarat.

"I have no adequate explanation for that, madam chair. It's certainly an accident of history," Brother McDonald said.

"It was a terrible, terrible situation. The lives of young people were devastated."

Ms Crozier said it appeared at one point in the school's history that only one female lay teacher was not offending against children.

Brother McDonald said it was a "sad, tragic" story and he would not attempt to defend it.

He said the order believed at the time that the offending was a moral issue, and not criminal.

"Eventually it came to be understood as a psycho-sexual dysfunction. With all of that, it's a crime. It's always been a crime and a terrible, terrible crime that has ruined lives," he said.

"We know that. We knew that and every believer of Christian Brothers should have known that."

He said he did not believe offenders were protected by "organisational design" but by "elements" within the organisation.

Brother McDonald said there was no concrete evidence of a cover-up at St Alipius, but admitted such a notion had not been investigated by the order.

He acknowledged a cover-up was possible.

Brother McDonald said there was no evidence to suggest, as claimed by victims' groups, that Ridsdale actively colluded with other paedophiles to abuse children.

He said he had no evidence that the congregation was "infiltrated" by paedophiles but acknowledged such institutions attracted them.

Sick secrets

Brother McDonald told the inquiry the church had a "spartan, repressive" culture at the time.

"We were taught to have little connection to family. For instance we didn't go to weddings, funerals, family celebrations," he said.

"It was a culture that was based on moral code of thou shalt not.

"So the culture of religious life when people joined, certainly when I joined, was repressive to that extent."

Brother McDonald agreed with inquiry committee members it was true the order had made mistakes by moving offenders on.

"There were times when parents became aware their child had been abused. There was anecdotal evidence that they turned up at the door of the priest and asked them to be removed," he said.

"There is anecdotal evidence police turned up at the door and asked for them to be removed.

"It was a perception that they were beyond offending. They should resist being put up on a pedestal.

"People are as sick as their secrets.

"We have to address the culture so there is no offending in the future. We have to address our secrets and you are helping us to do it."

The province's executive officer for professional standards, Brother Brian Brandon, told the inquiry he personally felt "desperately sorry and ashamed" of the order's record.

He said most complaints of abuse came through lawyers or the church's Towards Healing project, and the order would be happy to recommend a liaison between Towards Healing and police to ensure accountability.