Abusers Say They Never Existed: Congregation of Christian Brothers ‘never in Australia’

By Janet Fife-Yoemans
The Australian
April 22, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/abusers-say-they-never-existed-congregation-of-christian-brothers-never-in-australia/story-e6frg6n6-1226892728469

Legal walls have been erected by the Christian Brothers in Australia. Source: News Limited

THE child sex abuse royal commission is being urged to investigate why the Congregation of Christian Brothers has claimed it never existed in ­Australia, as it looks into shocking abuse at four of its orphanages.

The commission is expected to hear from child migrants who, as young boys, were raped and physically ­assaulted by Christian Brothers at the notorious homes when it starts its ­latest inquiry in Perth next week.

Sydney solicitor Adrian Joel is urging the commission to look into the Christian Brothers’ response to a test case for the thousands of former child migrants shipped to Australia as cheap labour in mass migration schemes of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

Lawyers frustrated at the legal walls erected by the Christian Brothers in Australia launched the case in New York, under an old international law, arguing that it exists as an international order. A judge ruled against the case on a number of points including that they had sued the “wrong” Christian Brothers. Despite being a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, the Christian Brothers claims it is constituted differently in different countries and never existed in Australia as the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers in Rome told the New York court it never had any orphanages, work farms or offices in Australia and was completely separate to what, since 2007, has been called Christian Brothers Oceania in Australia. The Congregation of the Christian Brothers in Rome was only established in 1964. The Australian homes and orphanages were set up from as early as 1901 by the Christian Brothers of Ireland.

“It will be perverse not to vigorously and publicly challenge the Congregation’s claims of never existing in Australia,” Mr Joel said. However, he has not yet been granted leave to ­appear before the commission.

? MEANWHILE, the royal commission yesterday presented its first report after a finalised inquiry, into how convicted paedophile Steve Larkins was able to work as a top child protection adviser to the state government and its welfare program designed to keep children safe. The report went to the Governor-General and Governors of each state and it will be up to the state government to decide to release it.