Catholic Orders Accused of Child Sex Abuse ‘are Dying’

This is the best news I have heard in awhile

The Christian Brothers, a fifth of whose members were alleged child abusers between 1950 and 2010, now have an average age of 75.


The Australian
DAN BOX
Crime reporter, Sydney

The leaders of several major Catholic orders found to contain disproportionately high numbers of child abusers say the ­organisations are dying as their members grow old and few, if any, seek to replace them.

These orders have run dozens of schools, orphanages and other institutions across Australia, and been subject to thousands of allegations of child abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

The Christian Brothers, a fifth of whose members were alleged child abusers between 1950 and 2010, now have an average age of 75 and no one has attempted to join the order since the mid-2000s, the commission heard yesterday.

The Marist Brothers, which runs 13 schools across Australia and had a similar proportion of its members alleged to be abusers over that time, now has an ­average age of 73 and “a trickle” of candidates for new positions.

The St John of God Brothers, 40 per cent of whom were ­alleged abusers, now have 19 members, most in their 70s and 80s, and are “effectively winding down in Australia”, their provincial leader, Timothy Graham, told the commission yesterday.

“My main job is to manage the aged-care needs of the brothers (and) to manage the sexual abuse claims,” he said.

The Salesians of Don Bosco have a “steady flow of candidates”, provincial leader Gre­gory Chambers told the commission, but all are from ­Pacific countries and expected to return overseas to work. Twenty-two per cent of the order’s members have been alleged to be child abusers since 1950, with Brother Gregory saying the ­offenders had “betrayed St John Bosco, who founded the order”.

Be very careful vetting those candidates! The order may still be attracting pedophiles.

While these Catholic orders now exert less influence, many are still involved in the management of schools nationwide.

Peter Clinch, provincial leader of the Christian Brothers, said they had 280 remaining members and “if you look at the statistics and at the evidence … around us, we need to be gracious in our final years”. Asked whether “in 30 or 40 years the Christian Brothers will essentially be just a brand on schools” run by other people, he said: “I don’t think the brand will be there. I think the Christian Brothers will be no more.”

I don't think they should be there now. They are a great source of shame for anyone who calls himself a Christian and, indeed, for Christ Who's Name they impugn.

The order has been the subject of 1015 claims of child sexual abuse against 301 alleged perpetrators, between 1950 and 2010, the commission heard.

Asked why the figures were so high, Brother Clinch highlighted the practice of taking ­junior brothers from the age of 14, which “stunted their psychosexual development and they were uneasy with adult relationships. Their dominance over young people exerted itself in a very catastrophic way in the form of abuse.”

Not to mention that many were sexually abused by adult Brothers.

Marist Brothers leader Peter Carroll said his order’s practice of taking novices as young as 12 meant “they were institutionalised and … that had an effect on their relationships and ... caused dysfunction in their ability to ­relate to people.”

I wonder how many novices turned into predators as compared with the number of adults who entered the order and became predators?

Regardless, I am glad to see some of these orders coming to an end. I feel sorry for those men who were genuine in their ministry and righteous in character, but it is hard to believe there were many who were not aware of the perversion that went on around them. 

I would really like to see governments around the world make serious investigations into the workings of these orders with regard to the sex abuse of children in their care.