Australia: Catholic Church Paid $43 Million to Keep Abuse Secret

Pope Francis may be Time Magazine's 2013 Person of the Year, but that accolade is not keeping the new explosions of the world wide sex abuse scandals under wraps.  Just as the Roman Catholic Church went into a free fall in Ireland after government investigations into sexual abuse blew the lid off of the perversion and abuse that had been deliberately hidden by high Church clerics, now the Royal Commission in Australia is turning up more and more lurid details of sins committed by bishops and cardinals who sought to silence victims of clerical sex abuse.  It now appears that at least $43 million in hush money was paid since 1996 to keep abuse victims silent and away form the police or the media.  The question thus becomes once again one of what Francis will do to hold bishops and cardinal accountable and to punish those involved in this criminal conspiracy.  The Daily Telegraph has details.  Here are highlights:

THE Catholic Church has admitted paying at least $43 million in hush money to victims of its paedophile priests, as the church's barrister outraged victims yesterday by quoting from the Bible. 

 

In some cases, victims were not even allowed to tell their husbands, wives or children about the secret settlements negotiated through the church's controversial Towards Healing process.

The royal commission into child sex abuse was yesterday also told how a Brisbane Catholic priest, Father Frank Derriman, ran a cult-like group sexually abusing young girls and giving them all the surname Brown, borrowed from the Peanuts comic strip's Charlie Brown.

As the church apologised for its behaviour through the commission, survivors who were abused as children in orphanages and homes, walked out of the Sydney hearing in tears when the church's counsel, Peter Gray SC quoted from the Gospel of Mark.

It is the first time the church has been forced to reveal the extent of compensation paid to victims, although it does not include out-of-court settlements or other payments made outside the Towards Healing process.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said that between January 1996 and September 2013, $43 million had been paid by all church authorities with the Christian Brothers the most notorious.

The second largest number of complaints were made against the Marist Brothers and then the De La Salle Brothers.

In that time, 2215 victims had approached the Towards Healing process and 1700 people went ahead with it, although not all were pursued or substantiated.

The most complaints, 43 per cent, were made against religious brothers, 21 per cent against diocesan priests and 14 per cent against religious priests. Most of the abuse happened between 1950 to 1980 in orphanages and schools.

There are many more lurid details, so read the whole piece.  It is shocking - or at least to anyone who hasn't followed the sex abuse scandal closely - and underscores the cesspool nature of the Church hierarchy.   If Francis wants to live up to the tile given to him by Time, he needs to begin cleaning house big time.  And forcing bishops and cardinals into retirements where they continue to live like princes is not enough.  They need to be thrown out and left on the street with no retirements, no plush living quarters, and no titles and deference.