Australian Commission Reports About 1,880 Clerics Accused of Child Sexual Abuse Between 1950 and 2010

A report from Australia’s Commission on Response to Child Sexual Abuse, issued after four years of investigation, found that between 1950 and 2010 approximately 1,880 clerics in Australia were accused of child sexual abuse. The report states that these clerics represented 7% of all Catholic clerics in Australia and that there were 4,444 alleged victims. These figures are allegations as reported to the Commission, not findings of criminal guilt in each case.

According to the report, some parishes had more than 15% of their clerics involved in alleged abuse. The data also showed high proportions of alleged perpetrators among some religious orders that operated schools during the same period, including the Christian Brotherhood (22%), the Holy Mothers Brothers (20%), and the Holy See Brotherhood, where the report places 40% of clergy among those involved in alleged child sexual abuse.

The Commission reported that the 1,880 suspected clerics included 32% monks, 30% priests, 5% nuns, and others described as non-consensual followers. It also recorded 93 cases of alleged sexual assault involving children between 1980 and 2015 across more than 1,000 Catholic institutions. The report gives average ages of 10.5 years for girls and 11.6 years for boys at the time of the alleged abuse, and says a significant majority of the children were boys. It further states that an average of 33 years passed before each assault was reported.

The Commission heard dozens of victims’ testimonies, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The report describes some clerics as having threatened girls with knives and having asked them to kneel between their legs. Some boys said they had been assaulted in the classroom, and that teachers had given other students alcohol so that they would not notice. The report also examined abuse in other institutions such as schools and sports clubs, and states that in all cases up to 60% occurred in church institutions, more than two-thirds of which belonged to the Catholic Church.

ABC reporting cited in the source describes church-run boarding schools as places where sexual assault took place. It refers to the St. John’s Brotherhood, which the source says began in 1974 to set up special schools in New South Wales for children with learning disabilities and later expanded across Australia to accommodate vulnerable children, orphans, and other children in distress. Those children, the source states, often had no one else to complain to and no access to outside help, and many remained silent. The source also says a priest named Lisdale is alleged to have committed at least 30 serious crimes of child sexual abuse, and that these allegations are described in the report.

Board lawyers accused the Church of systematically concealing the truth. Among the claims, the source reports that Archbishop George Pell of Australia is accused of covering up the alleged abuse of several clerics. The source states that he was accused of failing to follow up on two clerics while he served in the Baralet parish in Victoria, and that he acknowledged a belief that “the protection of the Church’s reputation was more important than helping the victim.” The source does not establish the outcome of any criminal proceeding against him. It also reports that the Bishop of Baralayt at the time, identified as Mukens, is accused of having left a priest free to continue for at least 13 years.

The Commission’s chief counsel, identified in the source as Fornis, said that these children had been ignored and that the clergy involved had been transferred to other places, where new institutions were unaware of their history. She said the Church had deliberately concealed the truth, especially when it asked the Vatican to respond in 2014, and that the response received was “not possible or suitable to provide information.”

Sullivan, identified in the source as executive director of the Truth, Justice and Treatment Commission, said the numbers were shocking, tragic, and inexcusable. He apologized to those present and said, “I am ashamed to be a Catholic.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Mandarin Chinese)