BROTHER Backs Call for Church to Be Liable

9 News
November 14, 2013

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/11/14/17/12/brother-backs-call-for-church-to-be-liable

A leader of a Catholic order has backed a call to make the church a legal entity that can be sued.

Christian Brothers deputy province leader Brother Julian McDonald said the recommendations of Victoria's parliamentary inquiry on child sex abuse were sound and constructive and he supported them all.

Among the major changes called for by the report are reforms that would enable churches to be sued and make them liable for priests and teachers who commit abuse.

Br McDonald, who gave evidence to the inquiry, said the recommendations were sound.

"I'd hope that parliament will accept them so that we can move forward," Br McDonald said.

"There's none that I would reject out of hand at all."

In his submission to the inquiry, Br McDonald gave evidence on the situation at Ballarat's St Alipius primary school where four staff members were convicted of sexual offences, which he said was a coincidence.

"I have no explanation for that... it is certainly an accident of history," Br McDonald said of the men, including Brother Robert Best and Brother Edward Dowlan.

"It was a terrible, terrible situation," Br McDonald told the inquiry in May.

He told AAP the order acted decisively when allegations surfaced, publishing notices in newspapers in the mid-1990s asking victims to come forward.

"Nobody knows how an individual is going to behave in any circumstance," Br McDonald said.

"The abuse that was perpetrated was done secretly by individuals, certainly not condoned by the Christian Brothers."

In its findings on the situation at St Alipius primary school, the inquiry committee said pedophile clerics often relied on the protection of their religion.

"Offenders who were members of religious organisations were confident that they could abuse their victims and that their activities would not be revealed," the report said.

Br McDonald said it was a good report.

"We've got to pick up our act, without a doubt," he said.

"That's the Catholic Church, the Christian Brothers, everyone associated with the Catholic Church."