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A woman victim forces the Catholic Church to apologise

 
   Broken Rites, Australia, "A woman victim forces the Catholic Church to apologise," http://broken rites.alphalink. com.au/nletter/ page101.html, (formerly http://broken rites.alphalink. com.au/ nletter/ page50.html ), E-mail of February 5, 2006
   AUSTRALIA: The Catholic Church has apologised for sex abuse allegedly committed by an archbishop's uncle. The Broken Rites victim support group helped the victim to achieve justice.
   An elderly woman says that in 1947, aged ten, she was sexually assaulted by Brother Brendan George Carroll, whose nephew is the current archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, the Most Reverend Francis Carroll.
   The woman, who wishes to be known as "Rose" (not her real name), says the assaults occurred in Cootamundra, New South Wales, within the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese. Brother Brendan Carroll, a senior member of the De La Salle teaching order, was the principal of the Cootamundra parish school in 1947.
   The Australian office of the De La Salle Brothers has apologised to Rose for the assaults. De La Salle's Australian head, Brother Ambrose Payne, has told Rose in a letter: "I accept without question your account of that awful event"
   The letter goes on to "acknowledge the harm done you, to seek your forgiveness on behalf of the Brothers and to ask you to accept this _expression of deep regret and revulsion at what has happened to you."
How Broken Rites helped
   Rose approached the Broken Rites victim support group in December 2004, seeking information about her abuser, whom she knew only by the name "Brother Brendan".
   With help from Broken Rites, Rose wrote to the Catholic Church's professional standards offices, asking for Brother Brendan's surname and his career details, but, despite repeated requests, these offices failed to reveal this information.
   Broken Rites then ascertained that Brother Brendan's birth name was Joseph John Carroll. He was born in 1903 into a family of nine children at Ganmain, 90km from Cootamundra. In 1920, aged 17, he joined the De La Salle Brothers, adopting the religious name "Brother Brendan George Carroll". It was common then for large Irish Catholic families to place some of their children into church careers. Two of Brother Brendan's siblings became nuns.
   Broken Rites ascertained that the Canberra-Goulburn diocese (then called the Goulburn diocese) was responsible for bringing the De La Salle Brothers to Cootamundra in 1913 to run the parish school. The bishop gave money to the De La Salle Brothers to construct a large building, called a "novitiate", to train Brothers in Cootamundra for all De La Salle schools in Australia.
   The De La Salle religious order was then a small one but it had potential for growth. In 1920, Brother Brendan was among the first Australian-born De La Salle trainees. He studied and lived at the Cootamundra novitiate. For recreation, the trainee Brothers played handball in a brick court behind the novitiate.
   After teaching in other towns (such as Orange, NSW), Brother Brendan returned to Cootamundra to be the director of the De La Salle Brothers there in 1928 and 1929. He was in Cootamundra again in 1946 and 1947 as the principal of the parish school. Then aged 43, he was one of the most prominent Catholics in the town.
   Brother Brendan died in 1983, aged 80.
Rose's story
   Beginning in December 2004, "Rose" told her story for the first time to Broken Rites and later to the church's professional standards offices and also to Canberra-Goulburn's Archbishop Francis Carroll.
   Rose said: "I was born in December 1936. In 1946-7, I attended the Cootamundra public school and lived with my mother and several other families at Cootamundra's Colleen guest-house, on the outskirts of the town. This building was known locally as 'the novitiate' because it had formerly accommodated Catholic religious Brothers."
   [Broken Rites research confirmed that, by 1946, the De La Salle Brothers had vacated this building, which began providing much-need postwar accommodation for families.]
   Rose said: "There were about ten children in the novitiate and we played in its spacious grounds.
   "In 1946-7 Brother Brendan frequently came by bicycle to the guest-house grounds, where he practised handball. He also chatted to us children and supervised our games. He helped us to draw up a hopscotch pitch on the handball court.
   "My mother and the other parents trusted Brother Brendan because he was well known locally as a senior Catholic religious Brother. We children addressed him reverentially as 'Brother' and we were obedient to him.
   "However, Brother Brendan breached this duty of care. In the vicinity of the handball court he used to sexually assault me and other children. He would masturbate in front of the children; and he would maul me and other children indecently, including digital penetration.
   "The handball court bordered onto scrubby bush land and it was located at least two hundred metres from the main residential building. The toilets were also located a fair way from the building, so geographically it was an ideal location for evil intent.
   "In 1946-7 I was prevented from reporting the sexual abuse because the church promoted the notion that priests and religious brothers were above suspicion. This gave the offending churchman a big advantage over the victim and protected him from exposure. If I had complained publicly about my abuse at the time, who would have believed me? The word of a child against the reputation of a senior Catholic religious figure?
   "Now, nearly 60 years later, I am increasingly aware that this code of silence was unfair -- unfair to me and unfair to other victims of other child abusers, then and since. I am reminded of this unfairness frequently – every time I see that another priest or religious brother has been convicted of child-sex crimes. I am motivated by the need to protect children in general."
   Rose says Brother Brendan took away her innocence as a ten-year-old. Brother Brendan was her introduction to "sex". The experience had a disastrous impact on Rose's life. It "turned her off sex forever" and this resulted in problems that helped to destroy her subsequent marriage.
   "By turning Brother Brendan loose on me at the novitiate, the Catholic Church has damaged my life enormously," Rose says.
The church's "professional standards"
   In December 2004 Broken Rites helped Rose to write to the Catholic Church's the National Committee for Professional Standards (NCPS) with a view to having her complaint referred to De La Salle headquarters and also to the Canberra-Goulburn archbishop. Rose's main aim was to obtain an apology for the sexual abuse.
   The NCPS shunted Rose's letter off to the church's Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) in Queensland, where Rose was then living.
   Rose says: "The Queensland PSRG, after consulting the De La Salle order, sent me a written response (dated 25 February 2005) that was defensive, evasive and dismissive. The letter suggested that the church might have sold the novitiate property by 1946 and, if so, the letter said that the church would not be liable because the abuse occurred at my home address (the guest-house), instead of on church-owned property. This is a distinction – between private property and church property – that the Catholic Church does not normally make in sexual abuse cases.
   "Furthermore, the letter claimed that the church might not be responsible because Brother Brendan was not my teacher. This ignored the fact that that Brother Brendan had a pastoral role in the whole Cootamundra community, not just with pupils during school hours.
   "The letter was insensitive and lacking in compassion. That sort of response endangers the public reputation of the Catholic Church. If that is to be the church's response, why will any Australian family ever again risk letting a Catholic priest or religious brother near their children, as my mother unfortunately did in 1946-7? The reputation of diocesan clergy, not just religious-order brothers, is at stake here."
A "favourite uncle"
   Rebuffed by the Queensland PSRG, Rose then decided to write to the relevant bishop -- Canberra-Goulburn's Archbishop Francis Carroll. And then Broken Rites discovered that Archbishop Carroll happens to be a nephew of Brother Brendan Carroll.
   Archbishop Carroll was born at Ganmain (Brother Brendan's home town) in 1930 into a family of seven children. According to a church website, young Francis Carroll went to Sydney to attend the De La Salle secondary school in Marrickville, where his uncle Brendan was teaching.
   The website says: "Francis Carroll's attraction to the priesthood was a gradual affair. In fact, at the age of 11 or 12, [Francis] had thoughts of becoming a De La Salle Brother, following in the footsteps of a favourite uncle."
   Eventually, Francis chose to become a priest, not a brother. Entering a seminary at the age of 17, he was ordained in 1954 and became Canberra-Goulburn's archbishop in 1983, the year that his uncle Brendan died.
   Broken Rites helped Rose to compose her letter to Archbishop Carroll. The letter pointed out the responsibility of Archbishop Carroll's diocese in bringing the De La Salle Brothers to Cootamundra and Brother Brendan's a pastoral role in the whole Cootamundra community.
   The letter also reminded Archbishop Carroll that, in mid-2000, he had issued media statements deploring church sexual abuse of children and promising a fair hearing for victims.
   In 2005, Archbishop Carroll was also president of the Australian Bishops' Conference. Therefore, Rose's letter indicated that Rose was prepared to take the Brother Brendan issue to all the Australian bishops.
   Two months later, Rose still had not received a reply from Archbishop Carroll. She wrote to the chairman of the Australian Bishops' committee on professional standards, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, and several other relevant clerics. Rose showed that she was serious. Clearly, she was prepared to take the matter publicly to all the parents and children of Australia – so as to make up for the cover-up in 1947.
   After a long delay, Archbishop Carroll replied briefly, saying that he would make inquiries at De La Salle headquarters in Sydney.
   Eventually, De La Salle made an out-of-court settlement with Rose.
   De La Salle's Australian head, Brother Ambrose Payne gave Rose a written apology, which reads in full as follows:
   "At the conclusion of our meeting on Friday last, I assured you that I would put in writing a sincere and deeply felt apology on behalf of the De La Salle Brothers for the abuse suffered by you as a child in the grounds of the Colleen Guest House, Cootamundra.
   "I repeat that I accept without question your account of that awful event as well as the insidious lead-up to it. I acknowledge the devastating effects that have resulted in your own life and that of your family. As a Brother, I am ashamed that a person whom you firmly believe to have been Br Brendan Carroll so abused your trust. That the person was a De La Salle Brother is, from your account, without doubt. That he was a De La Salle Brother means that I must speak on behalf of the Brothers of the Australian District to acknowledge the harm done to you, to seek your forgiveness on behalf of the Brothers and to ask you to accept this _expression of deep regret and revulsion at what has happened to you.
   "It is my earnest hope that the opportunity to meet with you will have given you some small assistance in healing some of the damage that has been done to you.
   "Yours very sincerely, "Brother Ambrose Payne, fsc, "Provincial, "District of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea"
   SUMMING UP: Rose is grateful for the help she received from Broken Rites. She is disappointed that the church's professional standards personnel, especially the Queensland PSRG, were so evasive. She is relieved that she has at last achieved the justice that was denied to her in 1947.
   Carroll's name is sometimes mis-spelt as Brendan Carrol or Brendan Carol or Brendan Caroll.
   For another senior De La Salle Brother who was a child-abuser, see our article entitled http://brokenrites. alphalink.com. au/nletter/ page30.html, Portrait of an abuser. [Feb 5, 06]

Church employed a sex-abuser in schools for 50 years

 
   Broken Rites, Australia, http://broken rites.alphalink. com.au/nletter/ page102.html , (formerly http://broken rites.alphalink. com.au/nletter/ page51.html ), E-mailed February 5, 2006
   AUSTRALIA: Two Catholic religious orders allowed a child-abuser to teach in Australian schools for more than 50 years until he was finally convicted in the year 2000, aged 74.
   The offender was Raymond Hugh Logan, who was originally a De La Salle Brother, known as "Brother Pius Bernard". After being publicly exposed as a sex-offender in De La Salle schools, he left the De La Salle order in 1968. Then, despite his unsatisfactory past, he was allowed to spend the rest of his career teaching in Christian Brothers schools as "Mr Logan".
   At Liverpool District Court, New South Wales, on 4 February 2000, Judge Tupman sentenced Logan to three years jail. The jail sentence was to be served by way of 2 years 3 months periodic weekend detention in prison, after which he would be, eligible for parole.
   Logan had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault against three boys. One of the charges was "indecent assault with intent to commit b*ggery".
   One victim in this prosecution was a pupil at Bankstown De La Salle College in Sydney in 1965. A second boy, aged 12, was a pupil at St John's De La Salle College, Lakemba (Sydney), in 1966-7. A third boy was attending another Sydney Catholic school in 1975-7. These were not Logan's only victims – just those who were found by police in time for this prosecution.
   During the investigation, police seized papers from the De Le Salle head offices in Sydney. These papers were damning not just towards Logan but also his superiors. Broken Rites has inspected a copy of these papers.
   According to these papers, Logan's De La Salle superiors discovered, early in his career as a Brother, that he was a sex-offender. Yet they protected him and merely transferred him from school to school. They did not dismiss him from the order until he after he had come to the attention of police, for a second time, in 1968.
   The seized papers also raise the question of how Logan was able to get employment in Christian Brothers schools after being dismissed from the De La Salle order as a sex-offender. In checking job references, did the Christian Brothers schools ask De La Salle headquarters about Logan's record? Did De La Salle headquarters tell the Christian Brothers the truth about Logan or did they conceal it? Or, if the Christian Brothers administration knew about his sex-offending, why did they go ahead with employing him?
   The remainder of this article is based on the seized papers, plus court documents and legal records.
   Born on 23 January 1925, Ray Logan grew up in rural New South Wales. His education was minimal. After leaving school early, he worked in the railways before becoming a trainee De La Salle Brother in 1943, aged 18. As "Brother Pius Bernard", he taught in De La Salle schools in New South Wales in 1946-55 at Haberfield, Orange, Cootamundra, Katoomba, Dubbo, and Orange.
   Offences in Western Australia
   In 1956-63, he taught at a small, new De La Salle school at Midland in Perth, Western Australia, where there were complaints by 1963 about him sexually abusing boys. According to the seized papers, the abuse included fondling the genitals of pupils in his class.
   On 19 April 1963, the parish priest at Midland wrote to DLS headquarters in Sydney, warning about Br Pius Bernard's sexual abuse. The priest added: "As yet, we have no publicity but it could blow open easily." The parish priest was keen to avoid media exposure.
   In a letter dated 17 May 1963, Logan's superior in Sydney (Brother Baptist) ordered Br Pius Bernard to leave W.A. immediately. Brother Baptist wrote: "Any good work you could hope to do in Midland, would be jeopardized by your past imprudences with several boys. Unfortunately, your imprudent advances have been talked about amongst a section of the boys, and inevitably it has gone further."
   Br Pius Bernard was transferred to St Joseph's De La Salle primary school in Malvern, Victoria, for the remainder of 1963, but the reason for the transfer was covered up. According to the seized papers, the Malvern community was merely told that Br Bernard's arrival was "because the school needed a senior teacher" to replace one who was going overseas.
   Br Baptist's letter advised Br Bernard: "Be resolved in future to keep your hands off the boys." But parents were not told about this.
   More offences in Sydney
   Br Pius Bernard taught in Bankstown NSW in 1964-5 and at St John's De La Salle College at Lakemba in Sydney in 1966-7. He continued to sexually abuse boys at these schools, as shown by his guilty plea in 2000.
   A NSW Police document (among the seized papers) says that, about 10.30am on Friday 14 January 1966, detectives were patrolling sand dunes at Green Hills beach near Sydney, investigating a crime of violence. They noticed Br Pius Bernard indecently exposing his genitals and masturbating in public. The police report was given to De La Salle headquarters. Alarmed about possible publicity, Br Pius Bernard's superiors gave him a written warning about this behaviour. But similar trouble occurred again in January 1968, so Logan left the De La Salle order in 1968.
   After 1968, he taught in Christian Brothers schools as a lay teacher – "Mister" Logan – and he continued to offend, as shown by his guilty plea in 2000 relating to crimes in 1975-7.
   Logan retired from full-time teaching about 1985 but kept teaching religious studies on a casual basis at various schools in Sydney, as well as playing organ at a local church for many years. In the late 1990s, he was back at Lakemba De La Salle again, teaching religious studies on a voluntary basis.
   By 1995, after various Catholic sex-abuse scandals in Australia (largely exposed by Broken Rites), several of Logan's victims contacted police. In the prosecution of 2000, he was charged only with offences committed in NSW, although there are also allegations against him in Western Australia.
   Even after he completed his jail sentence in 2002, more allegations arose in New South Wales. In 2002 on ex- pupil ("David") complained to the Catholic Church's NSW Professional Standards Group (PSRG) that he was indecently assaulted by Mr Raymond Logan at Christian Brothers College, Burwood, NSW, in 1977, when he was 15. David said that, at the end of 1977, he wanted to leave school and his father asked him to get a reference from the school about his progress. On the last day at school, the only teacher he could find was Logan. Logan told him: "I will be happy to provide the note if you masturbate me." David did what he asked and Logan then wrote the note for him. David said that, while at that school in 1975-7, he was also sexually assaulted by four Christian Brothers. The church's PSRG (and also the Christian Brothers headquarters) dismissed David's complaint about all five men, claiming that there was "a lack of evidence".
   One of Logan's West Australian pupils of 1961-3 ("Carl") contacted the Perth archdiocesan Professional Standards committee in 1995, reporting how Br Pius Bernard had indecently assaulted boys at the W.A. school. The committee's Father Walter Black forwarded this complaint to De La Salle headquarters in Sydney. A handwritten note, on the file, by the De La Salle provincial superior in 1995, admits that "Carl" has a legitimate grievance about Pius Bernard in Western Australia.
   Father Black's letter of 26 June 1995 said that Carl felt guilty about not reporting Br Pius Bernard back in 1961-3. Carl thought his silence might have caused more pupils to be abused.
   Father Black wrote: "He [Carl] explained to me that, back in those years, a Brother or Priest could do no wrong. He felt it would have been futile to complain to his parents or to school authorities what was going on."
   By 1999, Logan was facing the charges for which he was eventually convicted. The seized notes include a "character references" from a Sydney parish priest, saying that Logan attends Mass daily and that "he trust himself completely to Divine Providence."
   Justice finally arrived for Logan in his conviction on 4 February 2000.
   Logan, who never married, died on 3 August 2004, aged 79. It is therefore too late now to institute any further criminal proceedings against him but civil proceedings against the church authorities are still possible.
   Logan's behaviour severely disrupted the lives of his victims. Some of his victims have instituted civil proceedings against his schools and against the relevant Catholic Church authorities, claiming damages for personal injury. One victim says: "Because of Logan, I have been diagnosed as suffering from excessive severe post-traumatic stress disorder and associated symptoms. I have had to be admitted to mental hospitals for help and respite, as well as taking numerous tablet medications for over 38 years with no good news in the distant future."

Another cover-up at the same school

   Raymond Logan's conviction in 2000 included offences at St John's De La Salle College, Lakemba (now called Holy Spirit College). This was not the first time this school had come under scrutiny. In 1998, a lay teacher, Allan Thomas Walters, 62, pleaded guilty to homosexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy at the same school. Walters and Logan both went before the same court (Bankstown Local Court) for their preliminary hearing --- Walters on 1 May 1998 and Logan 13 days later.
   Later, in Sydney's Downing Centre court, Judge Greg Woods sentenced Walters to three years jail.
   According to a report in the Bankstown Express, the court was told that St John's College covered up Walters' crimes. Judge Woods said the offence, committed in 1985, was reported to the school authorities but they did not notify the police, so Walters was not charged.
   When the boy later developed behaviour difficulties, the school gave him no help but merely transferred him to another school. The victim finally made a police statement in 1997, aged 26.
   Walters joined St John's College in 1984 while still serving a good-behaviour bond, imposed in 1983 for sexually assaulting boys at a Queensland school. It is not clear how St John's College managed to employ a convicted child-abuser.
Physical cruelty
   In 2001, another ex-pupil of St John's College, Dr Paul Hogan, sued St John's College and a lay teacher for pain, injuries and income lost as a result of being strapped repeatedly on the hand in 1984 when he was aged 13. Dr Hogan claimed he had suffered permanent damage to his hand .A court awarded Dr Hogan a settlement of $2.5 million. The church appealed against this and got the amount reduced. [Feb 5, 06]

Teacher remanded over ‘child porn’

 
   The West Australian, www.thewest.com.au , p 58, Saturday, February 11, 2006
   PERTH: A Myaree schoolteacher faced a charge of possessing child pornography and another of using a computer service to obtain an objectionable article when he appeared in Fremantle Magistrate's Court yesterday.
   Police allege Nicholas James Stoneham, 25, committed the two offences in Myaree on February 7.
   Mr Stoneham was not required to plead to either of the charges, laid under the Censorship Act. He was remanded to seek legal advice and is due to appear again on February 24.
   Under the Act, it is illegal to possess any "article" which depicts a person who is, or appears to be, under 16 that would offend a reasonable adult. The article does not have to show sexual activity to be deemed pornographic. #

Greater responsibility from nurses and teachers is a better solution than mandatory reporting

Judge wants child abuse help

 
   The West Australian, by DAWN GIBSON, p 3, Monday, February 27, 2006
Nurses and teachers should take more responsibility for child abuse and maltreatment rather than simply passing on information to welfare authorities because mandatory reporting did not work, former Children's Court president Hal Jackson said yesterday.
   The District Court judge and chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Child Protection, said more community involvement was a far better solution than mandatory reporting of abuse. "We have had mandatory reporting around Austra­lia in various forms for a long time," he said.
   "Not one person has ever been prosecuted for not reporting. There is a lot of evidence that it doesn't actually improve the services for families and children who need it."
   In an interview with The West Australian on child protection issues, Judge Jackson said it was time child abuse was seen as an issue for the whole community rather than purely for government departments such as the Department for Community Development. He believed workers who dealt with children on a regular basis such as nurses and teachers should step in to help if they thought a child was being mistreated at home.
   While the most serious abuse cases should be referred to welfare author­ities, other people could sort out minor cases of neglect or mistreat­ment. For example, a teacher could talk to a child's parents if they often came to school without eating breakfast.
   The push for a community approach to child abuse is one of the key themes of a series of free public child protection forums organised by the Ministerial Advisory Council and several similar bodies.
   However, the teachers' and nurses' unions bristled at the idea their members were not doing enough to tackle child abuse.
   "Teachers are already taking on responsibilities to a very substantial degree that used to be handled by parents," Australian Education Union WA president Mike Keely said.
   "Teachers do take responsibility in these cases and the schools take responsibility."
   Australian Nursing Federation State secretary Mark Olson said the union wanted mandatory reporting so nurses had a black and white pro­cedure for handling abuse.
   A free seminar on children and families in adversity will be held on Wednesday from 8.45am to 4pm at the Tawarri Reception Centre in Dalkeith. To register, or for more information, phone 6488 2997 or email cvcf@cvllene.uwa.edu.au #