Those assets will not be sold off to help survivors, according to EREA.<\/p>\n
The attorney general Michelle Rowland\u2019s spokesperson said the government \u201ctakes any alleged attempts by institutions to hide assets from victims of child sexual abuse extremely seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n
Arnold Thomas & Becker has 78 claims against the Christian Brothers on behalf of abuse survivors. Partner Jodie Harris said her firm would be scrutinising the property transfers with \u201claser focus\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Survivors] know about the movement of assets to Edmund Rice over a period of time, and for them, all it is is the Christian Brothers trying to protect themselves again, at [expense to] their lives that have been devastated,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s certainly where most plaintiff lawyers, most lawyers who are acting for people who were abused are looking. We are looking very, very hard at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Lawyers were given little advance warning about the Christian Brothers\u2019 proposed moratorium.<\/p>\n One survivor was due to finally have their trial heard against the Christian Brothers beginning on Monday. It has been aborted.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter every delaying tactic in the book was used up \u2013 to be told that there is little, perhaps no money available after years of my family and myself hanging on by our fingernails, days before trial, is like my white-collared, black-robed rapist returning to finish me off with four deep thrusts of a sharp, long-bladed knife to the back, after fifty years of gradual, painful, delayed death,\u201d the survivor said.<\/p>\n Guardian Australia understands that, in another case, a survivor had recently settled with the Christian Brothers, prompting the court to dismiss the proceedings due to the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n The survivor had taken out a loan in the expectation of receiving money from the Christian Brothers, which was expected next week. That payment will now not be made.<\/p>\n A third survivor said he had suffered lifelong impacts from his abuse at the hands of four Christian Brothers and one non-religious teacher at St Kevin\u2019s College in the 1970s.<\/p>\n \u201cFailed relationships, depression and repeated suicide attempts have haunted me throughout my life,\u201d the survivor said. \u201cOver the past few years, I have been able to find forgiveness. This progress has been destroyed. Last week, when I heard about the Christian Brother\u2019s transferring ownership of the St Kevins property and other assets into another name, I felt betrayed \u2013 again.<\/p>\n \u201cI declined into a state where I was again, the boy locked in the bathroom, smashing his head and crying. The complexity of emotion is impossible to describe. The Catholic church is evil. They enable child abuse, they hide it, and I doubt will ever face up to the consequences for their actions. I will never forgive them.\u201d<\/p>\n Other survivors said they had been looking forward to moving on from the ordeal.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hoping to resolve my claim quickly to move on,\u201d the survivor said. \u201cI just want to live life and put it behind me. But I feel this will delay things.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Christian Brothers have informed survivors and other creditors that the sale of property would not be enough to pay each person what they are entitled to. Their proposed scheme will be run by retired judges who will divide up the proceeds of the property sales and decides what each survivor and other creditor is entitled to.<\/p>\n EREA took over the running of former Christian Brothers schools from 2007 and is named after the order\u2019s founder. EREA has made it clear it will not be selling property to help the Christian Brothers pay survivors.<\/p>\n EREA\u2019s financial reports indicate it has received transferred land worth $891m, according to its latest financial report in December 2024.<\/p>\n Proxy adviser Dean Paatsch, who has examined the Christian Brothers\u2019 financial reports, said that property could now be worth $2bn, an estimate first reported by the Australian Financial Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said the property was transferred as part of a slow, progressive process of turning over Christian Brothers school land and property to EREA, which was delayed by what the spokesperson describes as the \u201ccomplexity of transferring individual titles across multiple jurisdictions\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe diversion of school assets or funds to support the liabilities of another organisation would raise significant governance, fiduciary and regulatory issues,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sincerely hope the Christian Brothers find a path through their challenges, including planned asset sales, to allow them to continue their commitment to supporting survivors and victims of historic sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n The Christian Brothers said the scheme it is proposing would scrutinise the property transfers to EREA, and said its advisers about the proposed property sell-off scheme were not involved in the past transfer of property to EREA.<\/p>\n A Christian Brothers spokesperson said the scheme they are proposing is not designed to stop survivors from suing EREA in the future and it would not attempt to stop survivors from suing EREA.<\/p>\n The spokesperson said that, if the moratorium is not granted, the order would enter liquidation.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeking a moratorium on all civil proceedings ensures that all claimants under the proposed creditors scheme of arrangement will be treated equally, assuming the moratorium is granted and creditors and court approve the scheme,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge the decision to publicly announce the difficult financial position of the Province\u2019s entities, our decision to seek a scheme of arrangement and also a moratorium on civil proceedings, may have been unexpected, however it was important that all eligible creditors were made aware of the financial position.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation<\/a> on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC<\/a> offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac<\/a>) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp<\/a> abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An abuse survivor feels as if he has been stabbed with a \u201csharp, long, bladed knife to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-770457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2998.jpg\")
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