The Marist Brothers should be outlawed like the motor cycle gangs. The superior agreed children at the school might have been “absolutely terrified” of Romuald. He would make preparations to take children away with him on weekends. Gregory (Greg) Hammond at Marist Brothers Penhurst. In the 1980s, he worked at St Edmund’s College in Canberra despite two former principals having received complaints about Cable’s behaviour. shine-the-light-child-sexual-abuse-in-the-hunter, investigations-and-features. Investigations and Features Leaves court in January, 2013 after he was first charged. The classroom belonged to Charles Afeaki, a member of the Marist Brothers religious order, whose members taught generations of young children as they passed through the school. However, the elephant in the room in all these cases is the failure of Catholic institutional leaders to respond to knowledge of the abuse of children in accordance with the Christian principles to which their very lives were supposedly dedicated. Another victim wept while reading a statement about the impact of the crimes against him. World AIDS Day 2012... . Dad believed that the other Marist Brothers and the priests knew about this and did nothing. “Sutton had a train set and the boys that he liked, he would get them to come down and look at the train set. “They also had an enormous compassion for people who had faults. When Doherty tried to stop him, he would go over his head for approval from a more senior brother. The Marist Brothers are committed to ensuring any person abused in our facilities receives justice and open acknowledgement of what they and their loved ones have endured. There were some very serious suspicions that arose from his behaviour and nobody chipped him, except me.”, The royal commission found Doherty had not specifically defined the behaviour as child sexual abuse in his complaints to the hierarchy, but concluded in any case that they should have acted on his concerns of inappropriate dealings with children, including Sutton “wrestling” with children and taking them for rides in his car on his own. Trials against Francis William Cable, 82, known as Brother Romuald when he taught at Marist Brothers schools at Hamilton, Maitland and Pagewood in the 1960s, were expected to run for several months after he pleaded not guilty to nearly 60 indecent assault and buggery offences in the 1960s and 1970s. The Marist Brothers Australia invite you to learn about us, our work and our role in Australia today . Contact Our Firm Securely or Call (02) 9283 5599. Psalm 127:1-2. The consequences of being sexually abused as a child and feeling powerless to get help affected his two marriages, his interaction with others, his trust of people, and a relationship with his best friend at school who went on to be a priest and bishop. And, he says, Gregory Sutton was clever. He is serving a 16-year jail term, with eight years minimum non-parole, over offences relating to 19 complainants. Knowing that police were investigating Sutton for sex offences, the provincial of the Marist Brothers Alexis Turton put Sutton on a plane to Canada to receive treatment and counselling, in the process removing the suspect from the legal jurisdiction of his crimes. He agreed that for students targeted by Romuald for sexual abuse, life at the Hamilton Marist school would have been a “nightmare”, and it would have taken “an incredible amount of courage” for a child to have made a complaint about being sexually abused. There is a school called Marist College. Among the youth confided to our Inq approached the Marist Brothers to verify this conversation however Provincial Head Peter Carroll declined to comment. The code was like a special language used by the hierarchy, making it harder for anyone outside the inner circle to know who they were talking about. read more. Usually $199, use the promo code BOXINGDAY2020 to get half price on your annual membership before midnight December 30. The Marist Brothers accepted the boy was probably sexually abused by Romuald, his year master. “We will be able to handle that for next year. Many of them were spotted by “vocation teams” of senior Marist Brothers who visited schools to bolster the numbers joining the order. One of the boys who complained got "six of the best" from another Marist Brother who is also the subject of allegations, Judge Ellis said. Name * First Name Last Name. But when Doherty followed up the issue in 1976, the response was swift and stern. "I'm 64 years of age and I wonder sometimes where would my life be had I suffered what these boys suffered? Check out the latest installment of Br. “It’s probably true that many of the people in the classes that he taught were afraid of him,” the superior said. The recruits lived in a furtive environment. To connect a sign in method the email must match the one on your Crikey account. 1962-1965 to be precise. Why did leaders not apply their fundamental values to such apparent evil? 20% of the Marist Brothers order between 1950 and 2010 have been paedophiles. And the rest of the time, he was escaping from this evil person which resulted almost in daily caning. "His letter states that, when he was a pupil at Marist Brothers Parramatta, he was molested three times by Brother Norbert Mathieson at age 11 and 12. 89% of these claims identified one or more religious brothers as a perpetrator. This year and next will be a hard one for the Marist Brothers with several senior brothers before the courts for either child sexual abuse or cover up. Whether any of those brothers remain in senior leadership positions in the order, or are in locations close to children, is unknown. Marist Brothers laid the foundation stone for the college in 1917 but the school was run by the Mercy Sisters until 1946 when the brothers finally arrived, establishing the Brothers School. The royal commission was told Romuald moved schools two months after Andrew Nash’s death in October, 1974. He … Page 20 of 50 - About 500 essays. Cable went to trial in 2015. Under cross examination, Brother Turton told the commission he had talked to 52 of these brothers over a period of about 17 years as Provincial from 1989, and in his professional standards role from 2002 to 2012. And he would go down there and leave his class vacant,” said Doherty. Contact us on: [email protected] or call the hotline: +61 (03) 8623 9900. Another victim wept while reading a statement about the impact of the crimes against him. Today our mission is supported by mandated and voluntary policies and procedures to protect children. The schools (Marist and Mercy) amalgamated in 1975 to form St Mary's High School. These young boys had minimal contact with their families. In January 2008 " Brother Gregory " (real name Martin Meaney) admitted to abusing a boy 20 or 30 times in a four-month period in 1972, apologized unreservedly and was sentenced on five sample charges to two years imprisonment. Georgia Wilkins is a senior reporter at Crikey. Anyone seeking help after reading this article can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. “When he came in 1974 I said I was very worried about Greg’s behaviour and his propensity to have teacher’s pets,” Doherty said. being able to log in or subscribe. Cable made his first vows in 1952, aged 20, and worked at various Marist schools before leaving the order in the late 1970s and working as a lay teacher for the Christian Brothers at St Edmund’s College, Canberra for 10 years before retiring in 1989. Brother Ernesto, Councillor General since 2009, replaces Brother Emili Turú, elected in 2009. After decades of this kind of life, the emergence of the Vatican 2 reformation in the 1980s brought the church into relative modernity — postulancies, including those run by the Marist Brothers, began to evolve into institutions that offered more normalcy and contact with the outside world — but by then it was too late for the victims. Its prevailing culture was punitive, prone to favouritism and outbursts of violence. They have barely done less harm. won’t accept any obfuscation. the judge said. Then, in 1973, he turned whistleblower against one of his own.