Sydney's Catholic Archdiocese, thought to be the richest in the country, controls funds with assets of $1.24 billion and generates annual multimillion-dollar surpluses, according to evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission.
As the commission explores the church's handling of sex abuse claims, an unprecedented glimpse of the books was provided by the archdiocese's business manager, Danny Casey, who said the funds are “ultimately controlled by – owned by, if you like – the archbishop of the day”.
Since George Pell's appointment as archbishop in 2001, the archdiocese has received 204 claims and paid out just under $8 million to victims of child sexual assault, the commission has been told. Payments to “non-school victims” were $5.4 million. This included $740,000 for “boundary issues with adults”.
The commission heard the archdiocesan funds have generated annual surpluses including $43.95 million (2007), $19.6 million (2006) and $9.1 million last year.
The royal commission was shown accounts revealing that the Catholic Development Fund held $810 million, including $321 million in cash at the end of 2013. The procuration fund from which sexual abuse claims are made held $426 million, including real estate assets of $207 million. This included buildings and land used “substantially” for church purposes.
The archdiocese's reported net assets in 2013 were $192 million.
Mr Casey said the archdiocese held a relatively large amount in low-returning liquid assets, depending on the requirements of the “clients”, including church agencies such as schools who may need access to cash within a three-month period. He said: “We need to be very prudent with it and I believe we are."
“What you are indicating, as I understand it, is that in many years the church makes significant investments – but from property transactions and other transactions gets significant returns, is that right?” asked the royal commission chairman, Justice Peter McClellan.
“That's correct," Mr Casey replied.
“No doubt your prudence in this is commended, but in many years, there are significant amounts of money that provide significant returns?" Justice McClellan asked.
“That's right, your honour”, Mr Casey replied.
Last year's $9.1 million surplus included a 125-year lease transaction contributing $5.5 million and “we had a very good year with our managed funds and out investments," he said.
Mr Casey said it had been a “very, very bad decision” not to accept sex abuse victim John Ellis's pre-litigation settlement offer of $100,000 in 2004. The case finished up costing the Archdiocese $1.5 million including $568,000 in ex gratia payments to Mr Ellis.
The largest amount paid to an unnamed sex abuse victim by the Sydney Archdiocese through its Towards Healing process since 2001 was $795,000, the commission has been told.
