AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate
MURRAY NICHOLLS
4 Jul 2017
BATHURST’S Anglican diocese is preparing a new list of potential asset sales as it braces for multi-million dollar compensation payouts to past victims of sexual abuse.
Bishop Ian Palmer wrote to parishioners at the weekend asking them to identify assets within their communities that could be sold to help raise the expected $2 million compensation bill.
It comes just a year after the diocese was forced into a fire sale of assets – including Bathurst’s All Saints’ College – to help repay a $40 million debt to the Commonwealth Bank.
Bishop Palmer said in the letter to parishioners that the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse had highlighted the damage to victims of historical cases of abuse by members of the clergy.
He said the Bathurst diocese had already paid out more than $1 million in compensation over the past 18 months.
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