AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with video]
By Peta Carlyon
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.”
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