Salesians Pay out $2.06m to Victims

Sky News
April 29, 2013

http://www.skynews.com.au/local/article.aspx?id=867813



The Salesian Catholic order has paid $2.06 million compensation to Victorian abuse victims, with complaints made against 14 priests, an inquiry has heard.

There have been a total of 49 complaints made against 14 priests of the Salesian order.

Of those, 37 payouts have been made, the Victorian child abuse inquiry heard on Monday.

Five priests from the order have been convicted of criminal offences.

The first abuse case came to the organisation's attention in 1986, its provincial Greg Chambers said.

Father Chambers said two priests accused of abuse remained in the order, but said both were bound to domestic duties and had no exposure to children.

He said the order had to accept that it had failed to properly vet, train and supervise its members.

'Our religious society must have some responsibility for the failures,' he told the inquiry, adding that the order must apologise for the wrongs of the past.

He conceded that the order had not conducted its own wide-ranging investigation into the abuse.

Fr Chambers said would-be priests were now aware of their responsibilities and were psychologically tested.

He said 'a number' of candidates had been excluded by a vetting process now in place.

Fr Chambers said he had been made aware of possible communication between as many as three offenders but didn't believe there had been any collusion.

'There may have been some communication between those individuals,' he said.

He denied any conspiracy.

'I wouldn't call it that,' he said.

Another Catholic order, St John of God, has denied it covered up sexual abuse by its members or that it was the target of a pedophile ring.

There were complaints made against 15 out of a total of about 60 Victorian brothers, a figure the organisation says it is 'horrified' about.

St John of God provincial Tim Graham said he didn't think it was possible there had been a cover-up.

Brother Graham said the organisation had been stripped to the bone by media investigations and had also provided every bit of information it had to the inquiry.

Asked if the order had created, harboured or colluded with pedophiles, he said, 'I don't accept that.'

Rosanna Harris, chair of provinces professional standards committee at St John of God, denied the organisation had been targeted by pedophiles.

'It would appear that the brothers who offended operated independently. That is certainly what comes through,' Ms Harris said.

'There is no suggestion there were rings of pedophiles or there was collusion between brothers.'

The organisation is yet to conduct its own overall investigation into the abuse, the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations heard.

'So far we have found that there have been various offenders working independently over a number of years,' Ms Harris said.

'As to the reasons why, we haven't explored that yet.

'We would be open to looking at anything that would help us to understand.'

Most allegations against the organisation, which provided services for people with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties, related to the 1960s and 1970s.

Ms Harris and Brother Graham agreed with a suggestion by committee member Frank McGuire that the number of 15 out of 60 was extraordinarily high.

'We accept sadly that there are a number of complaints and that very vulnerable children in our care were damaged and for that we have apologised and we continue to do so,' Ms Harris said.

'We are horrified.'