Abuse in care: Faith-based institutions 'acted to protect their own reputations'

Wednesday, 15 December 2021

Minister for the Public Service Chris Hipkins has described the decades of failures of redress for abuse in care survivors as 'a national disgrace'. (Video first published in December 2021)

When children suffered horrendous abuse from clergy, the abusers were often encouraged to resign rather than be disciplined, records were destroyed, survivors were disbelieved, and churches focused mostly on their reputation.

These are some of the damning findings related to abuse in faith-based institutions, contained in a 443-page interim report released by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care on Wednesday.

While historical care and abuse data is very poor, the royal commission estimated about 205,000 people passed through residential faith-based care settings between 1950 and 1999.

The voluminous report includes scrutiny of the redress processes of 14 faith-based institutions, with a specific focus on the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army.

* Survivors call for new Government entity to hear allegations of institutional child abuse

* Survivors share stories of past abuse at New Zealand schools

In March this year, Cardinal John Dew apologised to survivors of abuse within the church on behalf of the bishops and congregational leaders in New Zealand when he appeared before the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care.

Since early 2020, the royal commission has heard from numerous survivors about the abuse they suffered. It has also considered evidence from church representatives about their redress processes, from witnesses who did not give oral evidence, survivors who had private sessions, and documents received from churches and other entities in response to formal notices to produce material.

In its findings, the commission said there had been significant barriers to survivors disclosing abuse, and seeking accountability and redress. “Historically, faith-based processes have not done enough to reduce or resolve these barriers. When abuse has been disclosed, faith-based institutions have often responded with disbelief, and acted to protect their own reputations and interests.”

The commission found people in religious ministry “were regarded as close to God and not able to do wrong”.

While the first families he lived with were not abusive, he said that all changed in 1969, when he was moved to a family in Southland. (File photo)

A life of ‘fear, shame and guilt’

Marc Sinclair, 54, grew up in Dunedin and suffered physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of Christian Brothers teachers Victor Sullivan and Desmond Fay, diocesan priest Father Kevin Kean, and lay-teacher Ian Thompson.

Sinclair was 9 when his father, older brother and grandfather all died in a short period of time. He was attending St Edmund’s School, which was run by the Christian Brothers. Punishment at the school was brutal. Sinclair was often sent to the principal’s office for minor infringements where the principal, Sullivan, would sexually abuse him almost every week.

When Sinclair moved to St Paul’s High School, also run by the Christian Brothers, he suffered physical and sexual abuse by Thompson. On one occasion, Sinclair was held down by older students while Thompson caned him. Afterwards, Thompson gave him a cup of tea and offered him some “aspirin”.

Former Marist Brother Michael Beaumont was sentenced in September 2019 to a year of home detention for indecent assault and possessing obscene fantasy literature. (File photo)

The next thing Sinclair remembered was waking up next to another student with his shorts unbuttoned. He suffered severe cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea, and there was blood in his underpants.

The trauma left Sinclair with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), persistent depression, severe anxiety, and alcoholism. He has made attempts to take his own life. The commission heard the abuse continued to affect every aspect of his life, and that he has been “filled with fear, shame and guilt”.

Another survivor, only identified as Ms K, was abused by two Marist brothers, Brothers Michael Beaumont and Kevin Healy (known as Brother Gordon), in her home in Masterton in 1977. Both were teachers at her older brother’s school, and active members of the local church and community.

In one incident, Beaumont was invited for dinner at Ms K’s family home and everyone gathered for prayer afterwards. As everyone closed their eyes as prayers began, he pulled Ms K close to him and indecently assaulted her for the half hour it took everyone to recite the rosary.

The chairwoman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, Judge Coral Shaw, says much of the abuse in care was criminal and “some of it was torture”. (File photo)

Ms K was later diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression and, 18 years after reporting her abuse, has yet to receive a satisfactory offer of compensation.

“We heard from several survivors that churches had responded to disclosures of abuse by moving the abuser to another school or institution, or moving them overseas, or encouraging them to retire or resign without facing any accountability for their actions,” the commission’s report said.

It found most responses by faith-based institutions to reports of abuse were inadequate, some because their processes prioritised church needs over the needs of survivors. Survivors spoke about being treated with a lack of empathy, being disbelieved, or having their accounts minimised.

Inconsistent outcomes for survivors

Outcomes were inconsistent and differed according to which institution survivors were abused in, who they made their claim to, and whether they could afford legal representation or not.

Compensation payments ranged greatly, from $5000 to $60,000, with the Methodist Church offering the highest levels of compensation. Most survivors considered their financial settlements were not nearly enough to compensate for the pain and suffering they had endured or to help them rebuild their lives.

Some survivors said they received sincere apologies but many said they did not. Apologies were not sincere, did not genuinely acknowledge the abuse, and did not come from sufficiently senior individuals within the organisation. In one case, an institution declined to offer an unconditional apology, instead apologising “if the offending did occur”.

Few faith-based institutions offered any form of non-monetary redress. Some institutions had demanded settlement agreements where the survivor was not allowed to talk about the abuse or the circumstances leading up to the settlement.

Many survivors expressed their frustration to the royal commission at the lack of accountability for perpetrators and organisations. For some, justice mattered much more than redress. Perpetrators had sometimes died by the time survivors disclosed abuse and made a claim but survivors said they still wanted acknowledgement and accountability from the institution concerned.

Incentives to join redress scheme

The royal commission recommended faith-based institutions should phase out their current claims processes once a scheme, puretumu torowhānui, was established by the Crown to help survivors and their whānau.

While some faith-based institutions had already indicated their intention to participate in the scheme on moral grounds, others would likely be less willing, the commission said.

“In Australia, institutions that did not join that country’s National Redress Scheme risked losing their charitable status, charitable tax concessions and government grant funding. The risk of such sanctions motivated some institutions to join the scheme.”

The commission recommended faith-based institutions be given four to six months to voluntarily join the scheme, and then the Crown should consider incentives to encourage participation and, failing that, compel participation.

The commission is due to deliver its final report in June 2023.

In a statement, the Catholic Church said its bishops and leaders would closely study and consider how they could implement the report’s recommendations.

Sister Margaret Anne Mills, president of the Congregational Leaders Conference, said the church acknowledged the harm that abuse survivors suffered, as well as the actions proposed to provide redress.

“We see the report as part of the vision to transform what we are doing today and into the future,” she said.

The Catholic Church said it had already made strides in improving its systems, such as having Te Rōpū Tautoko (a body set up by the church to liaise with the royal commission) create “a road map” of how its response to reports of abuse in the church could be improved.