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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Press
June 24, 2002

Payouts from faithful
by Keri Welham

Catholic orders nationwide have used collection-plate donations to finance payouts of more than $500,000 to victims of sexual abuse.

Figures released at the weekend show a total of 38 sexual-abuse complaints against Fathers and Brothers of the church in the past decade.

Director of Catholic Communications Lindsay Freer said she knew of three large payouts made by church orders, totalling $550,000.

She said it was possible there were "a couple more". The payouts were tagged for counselling.

The money used to finance the payouts came from businesses such as schools and hospitals, investments such as property, and offerings from the church's faithful.

When asked where the money had come from, Mrs Freer said: "The Catholic people support all the operations of the church."

The national body of the Catholic Church had not made any lump-sum payouts, Mrs Freer said.

It had, however, offered to pay counselling fees and, in some instances, other costs such as legal fees.

"The whole focus of our protocols is the healing, the ongoing counselling, and it can be expensive," she said.

The counselling has also been financed from parishioner offerings.

A total of nine fathers and brothers nationwide have faced the courts for sex offences since diocese protocol committees were established in 1990.

Among these were Christchurch's Father Patrick Thwaites, Brother Kenneth Camden, and Brother Bernard McGrath.

Thwaites was sentenced to 2½ years jail in 1999. He was removed from the public ministry, but is still a priest receiving a living allowance from the diocese of Christchurch.

A former headmaster, Camden's 12-month jail sentence was reduced to eight months on appeal in May 1990. He assaulted an 11-year-old and his brother, 9, while on tramping trips in the late 1970s.

McGrath, from the Christchurch St John of God order, which is at the centre of a child sex-abuse scandal, was jailed for three years on 10 charges of indecencies on schoolboys. One of his victims, Joseph, has been paid $94,900 by the St John of God diocese in Australia.

An investigation by The Press has revealed secrecy clauses of several sexual-abuse cases at the Order of St John of God's Marylands residential school. A total of five complainants have come forward.

The three payments made by Catholic orders were: $110,000 to five victims of three Society of Mary (Marist) priests; $300,000 to five victims of four St John of God brothers; and $140,000 to victims of five brothers in the Marist Brothers order.