In the late 20th and early 21st century many cases were exposed of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children in the Christian Brothers' care over a number of decades. Cases emerged in
Ireland, Canada, the United States, Australia and
Great Britain.
Australia The
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse documented Christian Brothers' activities in Australia and in particular in Ballarat. 22% of Christian Brothers across Australia have been alleged sexual predators since 1950, according to the royal commission. The commissioners concluded that the Christian Brothers "completely failed... to protect the most vulnerable children in their care" and that senior brothers—including Brother Paul Nangle, Ballarat's highest Brother in the 1970s—had deliberately misled police in more recent statements about their knowledge of abuse. There were allegations that during the 1970s sexual abuses took place at the junior campus of
St Patrick's College and St Alipius Primary School in
Ballarat,
Victoria. After investigation, Brothers Robert Best, Edward Dowlan and Stephen Francis Farrell were all convicted of sex crimes. Brothers Dowlan and Best were later transferred to the senior campus and continued to offend. Four of the school's brothers and their chaplain,
Gerald Ridsdale, were accused of sexually assaulting children—all but one, who died before charges could be laid, have been convicted. In December 2014, a
royal commission found that "Christian Brothers leaders knew of allegations of sexual abuse of children at four Western Australian orphanages and failed to manage the homes to prevent the systemic ill-treatment for decades." During the 2016 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat, it was found that 853 children, average age 13, had been sexually abused by one or more Christian Brothers. Child abuse complaints had been made against 281 Christian Brothers, and the Congregation had paid
A$37.3 million in compensation. The Royal Commission's final report of Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat was released on 6 December 2017. The report found that 56 Christian Brothers had claims of sexual abuse made against them in Ballarat and that there "was a complete failure by the Christian Brothers to protect the most vulnerable children in their care". The response to complaints of sexual abuse was "grossly inadequate": most often Christian Brothers were moved to new locations after an allegation had been made. The Report found: "Often, the Christian Brother in question was allowed to remain in the position he held where the allegations arose, with continuing access to children," and "On many occasions, the Brother was moved to a new location after a complaint or allegation was made about his conduct. In some cases, the reason given for the move was to conceal the true reason for it and to protect the reputation of the Christian Brothers and avoid scandal and embarrassment." In February 2020, Rex Francis Elmer pleaded guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting boys at
St Vincent's Boys' Orphanage in
South Melbourne. He was removed from St Vincent's in 1976 after a welfare officer who inspected the orphanage complained that he had “interfered with” boys who lived at the home. He was appointed headmaster of a Melbourne Catholic boys school a few years after the religious order became aware of his abuse.
Ireland and Great Britain England In December 2012, the Christian Brothers school
St Ambrose College, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was implicated in a child sex abuse case. A former lay teacher was convicted of nineteen counts of sexual assault occurring between 1972 and 1991.
Ireland St Joseph's Industrial School in
Letterfrack,
County Galway, Republic of Ireland received a lasting notoriety through revelation of physical and sexual abuse of the boys by some of the Brothers there, with evidence of sexual abuse and extreme physical punishments going back to the 1930s. According to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, between the years 1940 to 1970 15 children died there while in the care of the Christian Brothers, from causes including tuberculosis. The school was closed in 1974. The Congregation of the Christian Brothers published full-page advertisements in newspapers in Ireland in March 1998, apologizing to former pupils who had been ill-treated whilst in their care. This advertising campaign expressed "deep regret" on behalf of the Christian Brothers and listed telephone lines which former pupils could ring if they needed help. In 2003 the Congregation brought a case against the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, seeking to prevent the commission from naming brothers accused of child abuse. Justice
Sean Ryan declared that individual alleged perpetrators of abuse would not be named unless they had already been convicted In May 2009 a report was issued by the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) on allegations of
child abuse committed on thousands of children in residential care institutions run by various
religious institutes for the
Irish state. This report found that sexual abuse of boys in institutions run by the Brothers was common. In response, the Irish
ecclesiastical province issued a pledge to pay 161 million
euros toward a fund set up to compensate male and female victims of such abuse both in their institutions and in those run by other religious institutes. , the Christian Brothers in Ireland continued to seek out-of-court settlement for historical claims initiated by survivors of sexual assault by Brothers, committed in day schools managed by the order in Ireland. Towards Healing was set up by CORI to offer therapy to survivors of
clerical abuse; it is a Catholic organisation about whose independence there has been controversy. The Christian brothers in Ireland used the services of the L&P group to set up an education trust. In late November 2009, the organization announced it would supply a €161 million (£145 million sterling) package as part of reparations for child abuse in Ireland. This includes a donation of €30 million to a government trust and €4 million donated to provide counselling services. Playing fields owned by the organisation and valued at €127 million would be transferred to joint ownership of the government and the trust that runs former Christian Brothers schools. "303" "5 lay staff have been convicted of child sexual abuse"
Scotland In 2016 Brother John Bernard Farrell, retired priest of the Diocese of Motherwell, the last Head teacher at
St Ninian's Falkland, Fife, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. His colleague Brother Paul Vincent Kelly, a former member of the Order and a retired teacher from Portsmouth, was given a ten year custodial sentence; both were convicted of the physical and sexual abuse of boys between the years 1979 and 1983. More than 100 charges involving 35 boys were made. The school closed in 1983. In 2021, the
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry issued a report on the St. Ninians residential school which had been run by the Christian Brothers between 1953 and 1983. The report concluded that the school was a "a place of abuse and deprivation
Canada A pattern of physical and sexual abuse of more than 300
Mount Cashel Orphanage residents in
St. John's,
Newfoundland, perpetrated by staff members, specifically members of the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada (CBIC), was uncovered during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Multiple criminal investigations, a provincial Royal Commission of Inquiry (the
Hughes Inquiry) and an Archdiocese of St. John's inquiry (the
Winter Commission) resulted in criminal convictions and millions of dollars in court-imposed financial settlements. Compensation was provided by the
Government of Newfoundland for orphanage residents who were
wards of the state and several properties owned by the CBIC in Newfoundland and Labrador and other provinces were seized and liquidated. Throughout 1989-1993 nine Christian Brothers were charged and prosecuted for various criminal offences, including sex offences against the boys of Mount Cashel orphanage. Both the
St. John's Archdiocese through the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as the Congregation of Christian Brothers have since enacted policies aimed at the prevention of child sexual abuse. In
Ontario in January 1993 the Christian Brothers reached a financial settlement totalling $23 million with 700 former students who alleged abuse. In February 2021, a
British Columbia man alleged that he was sexually abused by one of the Christian Brothers, who confessed to the
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary of
molesting children at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in 1975.
India Despite a culture of silence around child sexual abuse in India, abuses that began decades ago continue into the 21st century, though few allegations see the light of day. Mathew N. Schmalz, director of Asian Studies at the Jesuit
College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, has researched Catholicism in Asia and Africa, and argues that although celibate men are viewed as sexually aberrant in the United States, they are held in respect in Asia. According to him "In India you'd have gossip and rumors, but it never reaches the level of formal charges or controversies." While
prosecution of a few egregious cases has happened, most cases are never revealed, investigated, punished or
prosecuted, even though more lawsuits are being filed against the Congregation of Christian Brothers in India (CCBI) for the trauma caused by Brothers, whether alive or deceased. One case that emerged during the
#MeToo movement was of Brother Francis Gale who was alleged in a detailed Facebook post to have molested Mary Therese Kurkalang, a tribal woman, since she was five years old, inflicting lifelong trauma, when he was stationed at
St. Edmund's College, Shillong. Despite an internal investigation that began in 2018 by the "Society Protection Officer" Brother J. Johnson, he was not prosecuted and remained a member of the Brothers as of January 2023.
United States Christian Brother Robert Brouillette, who had taught at
St. Laurence High School, was arrested in April 1998 in Joliet, Illinois, for indecent solicitation of a child. He was convicted in March 2000 of 10 charges related to child pornography, fined $2,000 and sentenced to four years probation. In 2002 a civil lawsuit was filed in Cook County, Illinois, against Brouillette for sexual assault against a 21-year-old man. In 2013 the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers' North American Province, known as Irish Christian Brothers, paid US$16.5 million to 400 victims of child sexual abuse across the US, and agreed to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for brothers accused of abuse. This followed the Brothers' filing for bankruptcy in April 2011 following rising legal costs, and leading to a reorganization settlement between creditors and the order according to the US
Chapter 11 bankruptcy code. ==Publications==