Royal commission into child sex abuse ...

NEWS.com.au
March 26, 2014

http://www.news.com.au/national/royal-commission-into-child-sex-abuse-told-of-incredible-wealth-of-sydneys-catholic-church-but-no-cash-for-alleged-victims-of-sex-abuse/story-fncynjr2-1226864204991

Cardinal George Pell.

Witness Danny Casey.

Cardinal George Pell leaving the royal commission into child abuse.

THE Catholic Church’s Sydney Archdiocese controls an incredible $1.238 billion in funds — most of it tax free.

It was the first time the wealth of the church has been revealed as the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse delved into its finances and examined the church’s response to victims.

The archdiocese’s cash reserves are $321 million and the church has been making a profit of up to $43 million a year through investments since 2001.

But the commission has been told that, instead of settling former altar boy John Ellis’s sexual abuse claim for the $100,000 he asked for, it offered him just $30,000 and then spent $1.5 million fighting him in court. Most claims are settled for between $50,000 and $70,000.

The money maze was unveiled as the archdiocese’s business manager, Danny Casey, gave evidence to the commission yesterday.

The funds are ultimately controlled by the archbishop, who since 2001 has been Cardinal George Pell.

Since then, the church had increased its net asset base by 86 per cent from $103 million to $193 million, the commission was told.

In the same time, just $5.5 million has been paid to victims of sexual abuse by church clerics.

“The state of those funds is such that it would be possible for the church to spend significantly greater moneys in assisting people who have been abused than it has spent so far,” commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said.

Mr Casey: “Yes your honour, there is always an opportunity to redirect existing expenditure.”

The diocese’s wealth has remained a secret to anyone outside a few within the church hierarchy because it is generally not required to file its affairs with any outside agency such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Mr Casey said that the church’s funds were income tax exempt and capital gains tax free as charities, although it was liable to pay stamp duty on some transactions.

He said that, as at the end of last year, the archdiocese had $810 million in the Catholic Development Fund, which he said operated as an “internal treasury” for the archdiocese.

That included the $321 million cash reserves.

The Procuration Fund, with gross assets of $426 million, is used to fund sexual abuse claims that are settled.

The Sustentation Fund of $1.7 million pays for the upkeep of St Mary’s Cathedral and looks after sick and retired clergy.

Mr Casey said he believed that the $30,000 the Catholic Church offered to Mr Ellis was entirely and completely inadequate.

Cardinal Pell will return to the witness box today to continue his evidence before he leaves for Rome to take up a senior post in the Vatican.