Christian Brothers" Handling of Abuse Complaints "Indefensible"

The Australian
May 3, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/mistakes-made-over-handling-of-abuse-complaints-christian-brothers-admit/story-fngburq5-1226634599966

The Christian Brothers' Julian McDonald gives evidence to the Victorian child abuse inquiry. Picture: Jon Hargest Source: Herald Sun

THE Christian Brothers admit they were aware of abuse complaints against two brothers at Ballarat in Victoria but failed to tell police.

The Catholic order had at least four confirmed pedophiles working in Ballarat in the 1970s, deputy province leader Brother Julian McDonald told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.

He had no explanation for why so many pedophiles served in the Ballarat parish at the same time.

“It's certainly an accident of history,” Brother McDonald said.

“Was there a culture that encouraged that? I don't believe there is evidence that there was.”

But Brother McDonald admitted the order's failure to alert police was because leaders in those days saw offending as a “moral failure”, and abusers were merely reprimanded.

“We can find two situations in which mistakes were definitely made and I will never try to defend that, that is indefensible,” Brother McDonald said.

“But we can find only two where we had prior knowledge and I believe it was because of the understanding of pedophilic behaviour ... it was treated as a moral failure, then eventually came to be understood as a psychosexual dysfunction.”

Of the abuse complaints against two Ballarat brothers, Brother McDonald said: “Tragically I believe the only action that was taken was that they were reprimanded for what they had done.

“This was because the leaders saw the offending as a moral failure. They did not have the knowledge that we have now.”

Brother McDonald said he could not defend the decision.

“I have no answer to that,” he said.

“I wasn't there. I did not know the thinking other than these matters were dealt with as moral transgressions.”

He admitted sexual abuse always had been a crime and always would be a crime.

“A terrible, terrible crime that's ruined lives and we know that and we knew that and every leader of the Christian Brothers should have known that,” he said.

Brother McDonald said there had been 266 complaints of abuse made against the Christian Brothers in Victoria, 20 of which had not been pursued.

Six brothers have been jailed for sexual abuse, four of whom remain in the order.

Brother McDonald said a further six brothers had been investigated by police but had not been convicted.

They no longer had contact with children, he said.

Brother McDonald said the order had to accept the collective responsibility for what had happened.

“It reflects on all of us,” he said.

Shane Wall, co-executive officer of the professional standards office at the Christian Brothers, admitted the culture at the time was to protect the church's reputation over children.

“I would say there was certainly a culture of protect the reputations ... and not having a focus on having the safety of children paramount,” he said.

Sister Angela Ryan, of Towards Healing, the Catholic Church's national system for dealing with child abuse, said about 400 complaints had been received in Victoria, and 307 allegations substantiated.

She said the church had been too slow and ineffective in dealing with abuse in the past.

“I am deeply ashamed of the appalling actions and crimes of some church personnel,” she told the inquiry.

“Unfortunately, as a church, we simply could not believe that a priest or religious could do such appalling things.”

However, organisations such as Towards Healing had been transparent in their dealings with authorities.

“We have nothing to hide,” Sister Ryan said.