The Dominion Post
May 22 2004
Church pays more than $5m compo
by Fran Tyler
The Catholic Church
is unable to say how much it has paid out in compensation to victims of abuse
in New Zealand, but a tally of the amounts made public so far reveal it to be
at least $5.6 million.
The biggest amount -- more than $4 million -- was paid to men who claimed they
had been abused by brothers at the Order of St John's Maryland's residential
school in
Five brothers are alleged to be involved. Three of them, aged 56, 67 and 81 are
battling extradition from
Another large payout was made by the church's Sisters of Nazareth order to a
group of men and women who claim to have been both physically and sexually abused
while in the care of the sisters and two priests.
Seventeen of the 43 complainants were paid a total of $500,000.
Catholic Communications spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer
said a total figure for the amount paid out to abuse complainants was not
available.
The church also did not have up-to-date figures on the number of victims or the
number of priests, nuns and brothers alleged to have been abusers.
Of cases published recently, there had been about 200 victims, most children at
the time they were abused.
Many of the earlier victims signed confidentiality clauses, which meant they
could not take further action or speak publicly of the abuse.
This week, Society of Mary (Marist) priest Alan Woodcock was convicted of abusing
11 boys over a 10-year period.
One victim, Terry Carter, had disclosed that he had received $45,000 from the
society after settling a civil case out of court. He signed a confidentiality
clause but had it lifted.
Father Denis O'Hagan said the society would not make public how much it had
paid out to sex abuse victims.
After publicity about Woodcock, the church received complaints from 33 people
-- 10 related to Woodcock, 13 related to society members who had since died,
three related for former members and seven related to those who were still part
of the society.
The head of the Order of
The order says the financial assistance is classified as "pastoral
gestures", not compensation.
"It would be difficult to place a monetary value on the pastoral process
to date, as it had never been intended to do so. So much of what we have been
able to provide simply cannot be translated into dollar terms, and nor should
it," Brother Burke said.