Sydney church’s $1.2b wealth revealed

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY PETER TRUTE AAP MARCH 25, 2014

THE Sydney Catholic archdiocese controls funds worth more than $1.2 billion and has regularly made multi-million dollar tax-free profits.

The royal commission into child sex abuse heard the archdiocese banked surpluses of between $7.7 million and $44 million between 2004 and 2007, a period during which the Catholic church was aggressively defending a claim for $100,000 brought against it by former altar boy John Ellis.

Mr Ellis was abused by a pedophile priest from the age of 13 to 17 during the 1970s.

The church ultimately spent $1.5 million defending the case, winning in 2007 then pursuing Mr Ellis for costs before abandoning the claim and paying him $570,000 for counselling, a holiday and renovations.

Sydney Archdiocese business manager Danny Casey told the commission on Tuesday that the church’s funds, worth $1.24 billion, included extensive property holdings and cash and were ultimately controlled by the archbishop.

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