AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.
The Christian Brothers Catholic order spent more than $1 million defending serial paedophile Robert Best, the order has told a Victorian inquiry into how churches handled child sexual abuse.
The order also paid $10,000 to a private investigator to spy on a victim of abuser Ted Dowlan. It paid for legal advice to protect Dowlan’s assets in civil lawsuits and gave him $125,000 when he left the order.
Any institution is as sick as its secrets, and there was a culture that kept things secret.
But brothers appearing on behalf of the order denied there were cultural problems within it.
The order apologised for the ”repulsive” and ”inexcusable” betrayal by the abusers and said most of the offenders had themselves been abused earlier.
”I cannot defend and will not try to defend the indefensible,” said Brother Julian McDonald, deputy leader of the order in Australia and the region.
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