AUSTRALIA
The Age
Jane Lee and Cameron Houston
The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has been forced to provide the Royal Commission with its balance sheet and other private financial dealings, which reveal the church controls a vast portfolio of property and investments valued at $309 million and reaped almost $53 million in income last year.
Head of the Melbourne Archdiocese’s finances, Francis Moore, prepared the church’s financial records for 2013 and conceded it could afford to triple its payments to victims of clerical abuse without a significant impact on its bottom line.
After taking into account net liabilities of $87 million, the Melbourne Archdiocese has net assets of $222 million, from which it could fund additional ex gratia payments to victims.
The payments – made once victims sign a deed promising they will not sue the church – are currently capped at $75,000. The average pay-out for sexual, physical and emotional abuse is about $36,100.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart announced from the witness stand on Monday that he had appointed former Federal Court judge, Donnell Ryan, QC, to review ex gratia payments made under the Melbourne Response, the church’s internal process for handling victims’ complaints. This would include the scale of future payments.
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