The head of the Patrician Brothers in Australia has
apologised after a brother jailed for child sexual abuse was referred to
as a "treasure" in a church publication.He spent four years in jail for the rape and indecent assault of two boys while as principal at the Patrician Brothers' Primary School at Granville in Western Sydney.
During his trial the court heard Brother Augustine, as Grealy was then known, would cover the statue of the Virgin Mary in his office with a coat to hide his shame before abusing the nine and 10-year-old boys in his care.
Not only does he remain a Patrician brother, in a September newsletter not only is Grealy standing alongside leaders of the Patricians in Australia, he is referred to in the caption as one of three "Patrician treasures".
Lawyer Jason Parkinson represents five men who allege they were abused by Grealy in the 1970s.
"It's had such a detrimental effect on their life that there's been a number of suicide attempts and a number of serious issues in relation to self-harm," he said. "(I) just couldn't believe that the order would refer to a child molester as a treasure. It just goes beyond belief that they would even be inviting him to remain within their group. He should've been shunned, should've been sent away. Shouldn't be allowed in the order."
Nearly 40 years later, Mr Parkinson said the Patrician Brothers had not taken responsibility for Grealy's behaviour and was squabbling with The Archdiocese of Sydney over responsibility.
"It was just terrible that Catholic orders and the Archdiocese and the Catholic Church itself can arrange their affairs in such a way that they can attempt to escape liability and responsibility," Mr Parkinson said. "There's no other organisations in Australia that can do that."
'Sad mistake'
Brother Philip Mulhall, the head of the Patrician Order in Australia, was until recently also the executive officer for national standards around dealing with child sex abuse claims for the entire Catholic Church in Australia.He says the publication describing Grealy as a treasure was a "dreadful, sad mistake".
"Number one, it's not the reality, but number two, the contributor who did that should not have put that in and I should've picked it up, to be honest," he said. "I can understand how victims feel about that. I know how they feel about it: affronted, confronted, injured, hurt - all those things - and angry. And I'd apologise to them."
Brother Mulhall also appeared with fellow members of the order in a photo, standing next to Grealy.
"I'll accept criticism of that," Brother Mulhall told Lateline. "Sometimes when you have a gathering... someone says go and stand over there and we'll take a picture. And sometimes you don't think about it. I don't stand in solidarity with Tom Grealy at all. I know it's easy to say it, but I am genuinely concerned for his victims and I'm very concerned for these five victims."
Brother Mulhall said Grealy had never been dismissed from the order.
"The policy at the time that he came out was like this, he's our member, he's our problem and we have a responsibility to see that he's not a problem for other people," he said. "He wasn't even brought back into the order; he had never left it, really. He was in jail as a Patrician Brother. Everybody knew that. And it was great shame for everyone, a shame for us."
Scrutiny needed
Another Patrician Brother was charged with child sexual abuse at the Patrician Brothers College at Blacktown about 12 months ago but remained at the school for two months before his removal.
Brother Mulhall said he informed the Catholic school system which administers the school "straight away".
"And then action was taken to start an investigation," he said. "To be honest, I don't think at that stage there was anything terribly definite, but then things must've become clearer subsequently. I was no longer involved in the investigation directly myself, except to be updated every so often as to say we're still investigating this matter."
The Federal Government's recently announced Royal commission is being asked to specifically examine institutional responses to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Brother Mulhall says he will cooperate with it completely, even if that means criticism, if lessons can be learnt for the future.
"I think there needs to be very good scrutiny of the way abuse issues have been handled in the Church generally, including my own congregation," he said. "I hope that the commission will go through, maybe not looking so much for targets, but looking for how people handle this sort of stuff, how it was dealt with and were there lots of mistakes in that or were there some mistakes in that? And what things can be put in place for the future so that it can be a whole lot better than it was in times gone by."