AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher
Research by Broken Rites has uncovered some cases in which pupils have received compensation for clergy sexual abuse at one of Australia’s most “prestigious” Catholic schools — Melbourne’s Xavier College. This Broken Rites article contains four examples of Xavier cases.
Xavier College is owned by the Society of Jesus (known as the Jesuit religious order), which has inherited a “scholarly” public image.
Situated on a hill in Kew in Melbourne’s leafy east, Xavier College opened as a boys’ boarding school in 1878. In 1900 it was accepted into an association of Melbourne’s most “prestigious” non-Catholic grammar schools.
Xavier established preparatory schools in Kew (Burke Hall, 1920) and Brighton (Kostka Hall, 1936). The prep schools cover the primary grades to Year 8. After completing the secondary years, at the main campus, many Xavier boys have been channelled into the professions of medicine, law, the church and the public service, thus helping to promote Xavier’s elite image.
Here are some examples of church settlements regarding Xavier College :
Xavier example 1
One Xavier settlement relates to Father Patrick Stephenson, SJ , OBE, who was associated with Xavier College for more than fifty years (until 1991) as a teacher and as a mentor in the Old Xavierians’ Association. Being involved in the education of thousands of boys, he was perhaps the school’s most famous teacher, like Britain’s legendary “Mr Chips”, and was one of the most widely known Jesuits in the city of Melbourne. His OBE award (the Order of the British Empire) is an indication of his prominence in the general Melbourne community. The school has named a sports complex after him. He is now deceased.
A former student, who was at Xavier in the late 1960s and early 1970s, has complained to the Jesuits that Fr Paddy Stephenson, O.B.E., indecently mauled this boy’s genitals. This constitutes a criminal offence — indecent assault. This student says he was not the only victim. He (and other boys) reported Stephenson’s behaviour at the time to another Jesuit priest (a religious education teacher) but this Jesuit was dismissive and “didn’t want to know about it”. Evidently, the ex-student says, the Jesuits were concerned to protect the school’s image. Eventually, many years later, this ex-student has tackled the Jesuit authorities with an official complaint. The Jesuits have reached a confidential settlement with this ex-student, thereby still protecting the school’s image. And the school’s sports complex is still named in honour of the famous Fr Patrick Stephenson, OBE.
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