'There would be thousands of victims': how the crimes of Brother Paschal Bartlett were kept quiet

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
September 04, 2016

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/there-would-be-thousands-of-victims-how-the-crimes-of-brother-paschal-bartlett-were-kept-quiet-20160831-gr5rkb.html

The Franciscan Order will make a public statement about Brother Paschal Bartlett.

Mary Immaculate Church at Waverley where Brother Paschal Bartlett abused young altar servers.

The sex crimes of Brother Paschal Bartlett were as numerous as they were horrific.

A member of the Franciscan order, he supervised altar boys for almost 50 years in various locations around Australia and New Zealand, exploiting his position of authority to sexually abuse them.

"I genuinely believe there would be thousands of victims out there," said one former altar boy, who was abused by the friar in Sydney in the 1960s and '70s. "He had access to altar boys for almost 50 years and it would appear he was never challenged."

Brother Paschal joined the Order of the Friars Minor in the 1920s, moving through parishes in Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand and Sydney, where he was at the Waverley parish on and off from the 1940s to the 1990s.

He had two lengthy periods of sick leave in the 1960s before returning to Waverley's Mary Immaculate Church where students from nearby Waverley College were encouraged to serve as altar boys.

It was there the former altar boy, who has requested anonymity, first encountered the man he describes as "without moral scruples".

Like many people who have suffered sexual abuse, he kept quiet about it for decades. After a private session with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he arranged a meeting with the Franciscan Friars Provincial Office in Waverley this year.

The now middle-aged man was aware there were at least two other altar boys who were molested by Brother Paschal during his time at Waverley but he was convinced many more were yet to come forward about the friar, who died in 1994 without ever facing charges. He asked the Franciscan Friars to make a public statement about Brother Paschal to encourage others to seek support.

"I put to them that this was the tip of the iceberg," he said.

"It had taken me significant time to come forward and that came at significant emotional cost. I said, 'What about the other victims? You have to do something to ensure that there is care for these people. They would be contemplating suicide as we speak'."

According to Catholic Church abuse advocacy group Broken Rites, the church's Professional Standards Office was notified in 2002 about sex abuse allegations involving Brother Paschal and four boys.

The Franciscan Friars acknowledged the abuse but declined the man's request for them to make a public statement about Brother Paschal via a letter from their lawyers, Makinson d'Apice​, last month.

"I got the impression they hoped I would just go away, and there were plenty of times I thought about that but, for me, a social justice imperative was at play," he said. "There were crimes committed on their watch. They now have a responsibility to victims. To do nothing is pretty dreadful behaviour."

The victim's lawyer, John Ellis, well known for his own battles with the Catholic Church, agreed it was a disappointing response.

"The cynic in me would say from the church's perspective there are only downsides to alerting people," he said. "The more people know, the more people are likely to come forward, and then there will be a financial cost. It's easier to simply bury their heads in the sand and view it as an isolated lapse."

After being contacted by Fairfax Media last week, the Franciscan Friars promised to act. 

In a statement, Provincial Minister Paul Smith wrote: "This will be implemented initially by naming Brother Paschal in the Waverley parish bulletin, and asking anyone with a claim of abuse against him to come forward. Similar announcements about sexual abuse will be made in other parishes where the Franciscans currently serve and we will also ask for an opportunity to do likewise in those parishes where we once ministered in past decades."

He acknowledged the Franciscans' Australian website needed a more prominent link to its professional standards statement and urged anyone who has been abused by a Franciscan friar to contact police or the Catholic Church's Professional Standards Office.