(AUSTRALIA)
Australian Financial Review [Sydney, NSW, Australia]
June 22, 2026
By Kylar Loussikian
The Christian Brothers will cease to exist after 183 years in Australia, and could be liquidated after paying hundreds of millions of dollars to abuse victims and saying the Catholic Church denied requests for assistance.
The order has proposed a deal that would allow it to distribute its remaining funds – including a property portfolio worth around $216 million – to victims and to other creditors, although it will be less than what they are owed.
In a notice late on Monday evening, the Christian Brothers said the congregation was “a stand-alone organisation … financially and canonically distinct” from the broader Catholic Church, which meant it had “ability to compel other Catholic institutions to assist in our current situation”.
The order had “requested funding from the broader Catholic Church … however no such funding has been provided”, it added.
The Christian Brothers are perhaps best known for dozens of schools around the country including Waverley College and St Pius X in Sydney, St Mary’s in Melbourne, Rostrevor in Adelaide and Trinity College in Perth.
However, those schools are run by Edmund Rice Education Australia, a different organisation which is not part of the administration.
In a statement, the Christian Brothers said it had made payments – for compensation and legal costs – of more than $480 million between 1980 and 2025. The order had found itself in a “difficult financial position” after the “number of claims and quantum of settlements [had] accelerated”.
In 2016, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuseheard that more than 850 people had made a claim or complaint of sexual abuse against one or more Christian Brothers. One brother who was identified as Brother CCK had 46 complaints made against him between 1963 and 1987. The average age of his victims was 11 years old.
The royal commission heard that the order was biased against abuse survivors who sued the congregation rather than negotiate. Some victims recieved as little as $2000 and signed away their rights to sue.
The order has 176 brothers, who are on average 81 years old.
“We have been very clear that our highest priority during this process is to ensure that the interests of victims and survivors, as well as our other creditors, are addressed and that the modest future living needs of remaining brothers are also addressed,” the order said in a statement.
By Kylar Loussikian Deputy editor – business