The Christian Brothers has deliberately kept nine convicted child abusers, one who is currently behind bars, as members of its religious order because it says it has a “Gospel imperative” to “care for all Brothers” and “the needy”.
Court documents also reveal the head of Christian Brothers Oceania met with representatives of the Holy See in an attempt to obtain support six months before it declared it was going broke and could not afford to meet abuse claims from survivors, but received no financial assistance.
The Christian Brothers on Thursday obtained a moratorium on all current and future civil claims by abuse survivors, throwing dozens of pending trials into chaos and halting hundreds more cases in their tracks.
The order says it is about to go broke and cannot afford to meet the claims of survivors. It is instead proposing a scheme that would sell off its remaining property, worth about $217m, and divide the proceeds to pay out survivors.
An affidavit filed by Brother Gerard John Brady, the head of the Christian Brothers Oceania province, told the court that it had about 176 brothers still in the order, most of which were in Australia.
Nine of those are convicted child sex offenders. One is behind bars. More current brothers had been accused of child abuse.
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