www.peterellis.co.nz : seeking justice for Peter Ellis : mail to: [email protected]

Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

Index: Home Page Peter Ellis
Index: Accusations in Institutions

The Press
June 28, 2002

Congregations to receive sex abuse letter from bishops

New Zealand's Catholic bishops are responding to the mounting revelations of sexual abuse within their clergy with a formal letter on the subject to go to the country's Catholics this weekend.

The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, John Cunneen, said he and his colleagues wanted to "speak to our people in the light of what we have come to know especially in the last few weeks" about sexual offending by Catholic priests and brothers.

The content of the letter will only be made public once it has been sent to all the country's parishes over the weekend.

Bishops' letters are a forum used occasionally by the church hierarchy to comment on significant issues confronting the wider church.

It will be the first letter on the abuse issue in New Zealand and follows other recent attempts by the church to be more open about the problem of sex offending in the clergy.

The church said last weekend it had substantiated 38 sexual abuse complaints over the past decade, although the cases alleged offending dating back to the 1950s.

The church in other countries -- particularly the United States and Australia -- has been rocked by sex abuse scandals.

The New Zealand bishops' move follows mounting calls in the Catholic community for more discussion and debate about the situation in this country. Some priests devoted their Sunday sermons to it last weekend.

The St John of God Order, which is embroiled in the latest sex scandal, has set up a toll-free hotline for people who have queries or want to report alleged incidents of abuse.

Four brothers who worked at the order's former Marylands residential school in Christchurch have had allegations made against them.

The order has so far paid out $300,000 to five New Zealand complainants, who claimed they were abused in the 1960s and 1970s.

Six new complainants have contacted the Australasian head of the order, Brother Peter Burke, with allegations, since details of the scandal emerged.

The free number for the order's headquarters in Sydney is 0800-888-463.