Time is running out for Christian Brothers

Leaders of Australia’s biggest Catholic orders, which contain high numbers of child abusers, say orders are dying.

Brother Peter Clinch outside Ballarat Magistrates' Court. Picture: Stuart Walmsley.

The leaders of some of Australia’s biggest Catholic orders, which have been found to contain disproportionately high numbers of child abusers, say their movements are dying as people grow old and few seek to replace them.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the leader of the Christian Brothers, Peter Clinch, said most of its 280 members were over 75 and no one had attempted to join since the mid-2000s.

“It’s my opinion that if you look at the statistics and you look at the evidence that is around us, we need to be gracious in our final years,” said Brother Clinch.

Asked whether “in 30 or 40 years the Christian Brothers will essentially be just a brand on schools” run by other people, he replied “I don’t think even the brand will be there.

“I think the Christian Brothers will be no more,” he said.

The order has been the subject of 1015 claims of child sexual abuse, against 301 alleged perpetrators, the commission has heard. That figure represents one in five of its members between 1950 and 2010.

“I’m appalled, shamed, humbled, when I saw those stark figures,” Brother Clinch said. “I deeply regret it and it challenges our brothers to the core while we exist.”

Asked why the figures were so high, he said the culture of the order, and the fact its members were overworked may have played a role, as did the practice of taking junior brothers from the age of 14.

“It stunted their psychosexual development and they were uneasy with adult relationships ... The dominance over young people exerted itself in a very catastrophic way in the form of abuse, both physical and sexual,” he said.

The regional leader of the Marist Brothers, which runs 13 schools across Australia and over a fifth of whose members have been alleged to be child abusers in recent decades, said its remaining 214 brothers have an average age of 73.

The order was receiving “a trickle” of candidates, Peter Carroll told the commission, with two people seeking to join in 2015.

Asked why the order has been the subject of 486 claims of child abuse, Brother Carroll said “there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer.

“We know there is an access issue. I mean we did operate a lot of schools ... but that doesn’t account for it. So there has to be something personal, like in the individual, has to be something structural, something cultural in the life that was lived.”

He also highlighted the fact new members historically joined the order as early as 12, saying “they were institutionalised and so I think that had an effect on their relationships and I think it sort of caused dysfunction in their ability to relate to people.”

A lack of professional administration meant the order was unable to respond properly when child abuse allegations were raised, he said.

“People handling this were stunned in the lights of an oncoming vehicle. They didn’t know what to do,” Brother Carroll said.