AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)

By Chris Morris

The Brothers Hospitallers of St John of God (SJOG) do not want to talk about Darryl Smith.

The Catholic order’s Australian head, provincial Brother Timothy Graham, declined to comment when contacted by ODT Insight.

He referred questions to the order’s law firm, which said it would be ”inappropriate” to comment while discussions with Mr Smith’s lawyers continued.

SJOG spokesman Simon Feely also responded to a request for comment with a blunt text: ”If it’s to do with Darryl Smith, there’s nothing to say that’s not been said.”

It is a defensiveness that perhaps partly reflects the spotlight on the Catholic order, and the wider Church in Australia, since the launch, back in 2013, of a Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

A final report was not due until December, but in February the commission revealed almost…