AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 11 May 2014)

Child-abuse at four Catholic orphanage-type institutions was so bad (and was so well covered-up) that the Christian Brothers earned a reputation many years ago as the “Christian Buggers”, Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission was told during public hearings in April-May 2014.

The senior barrister assisting the Royal Commission, Ms Gail Furness, said at a public hearing that the mention of “Christian Buggers” was made in a report from the UK House of Commons, referring to four Catholic institutions in Western Australia. These institutions housed disadvantaged boys, many of whom were orphans shipped to Australia from the UK and Malta during migration schemes.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held two weeks of public hearings in Perth in April-May 2014 to investigate how the Christian Brothers and successive West Australian governments responded to…