Church insurers scolded nuns for ‘prejudicial’ abuse apology

By Sarah Elks
Australian
April 15, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/church-insurers-scolded-nuns-for-prejudicial-abuse-apology/story-fngburq5-1227303982997

The Catholic Church’s insurers scolded Rockhampton’s Sisters of Mercy for issuing a “prejudicial” unreserved apology to hundreds of children who suffered alleged sexual abuse and bashings in their orphanage decades earlier.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday heard ­evidence of shocking abuse — ­including rapes by priests, public floggings, ritual humiliation for bed-wetters, and scant education — at the nuns’ Neerkol orphanage, which housed about 4000 children between 1885 and 1978.

When abuse complaints from former residents surfaced in the 1990s, the Sisters of Mercy worked with survivors to draft and publish an apology in 1997 to those victims of “physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual abuse”. The following month, however, Catholic Church Insurance Limited wrote to one of the order’s nuns, criticising the apology.

“The reason why you have ­issued an apology is well understood, and your concern for the victims and your recognition of their plight are recognised from a pastoral viewpoint,” the letter read. “However, CCI is entitled to consider the extent to which the position of the insurer has been prejudiced in relation to those cases in respect of which a claim may be subsequently submitted.”

The Sisters of Mercy and the Rockhampton Diocese of the Catholic Church ended up settling out of court with 72 abuse survivors. By June 1999, $790,910 had been paid in compensation.