AUSTRALIA
AAP
February 12, 2018
The Catholic Church has vastly understated the value of its multi-billion-dollar property portfolio, amid claims it cannot afford to pay compensation to abuse victims, according to an investigation of its assets.
An investigation by Fairfax Media published on Monday found that the church owns more than $30 billion in property and other assets across Australia.
Fairfax estimated the church’s total wealth in Victoria alone to be about $9 billion, almost 82 times larger than the the $109 million it revealed to the royal commission in 2014 as the estimated value of its Victorian property portfolio.
The investigation makes the church Victoria’s largest non-government property owner, casting serious doubt over its claims that it would be forced to cut back on social work if forced to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The reported wealth of the church also contrasts with findings by the royal commission, which found the average payout by the church’s compensation scheme established by former archbishop George Pell 20 years ago was $35,000 or less for those who had been abused by clergy.
“These figures confirm what we have known; there is huge inequity between the Catholic Church’s wealth and their responses to survivors,” Helen Last, chief executive of the In Good Faith Foundation, which supports abuse survivors told Fairfax.
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