Title: Catholic church seeks state aid for child abuse!
Date: 1993
Source: Retrieved on 13th October 2021 from struggle.ws
Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 40 — Autumn 1993.

The Catholic Church is looking for payment in return for sexually abusing children! Right up to the 1960s young children from Catholic orphanages in Britain and the six counties were shipped out to Australia. There the boys, some as young as eight years, were used as almost slave labour by Catholic farmers and the Church itself. Girls were sent into domestic service in the homes of rich Church members.

In Western Australia the Christian Brothers are facing over 50 compensation claims by former child migrants who say they were sexually abused while in Church care. In July, in the Western Australian newspaper, the Christian Brothers admitted that “physical and sexual abuse took place”. But rather than face up to their responsibilities, the Catholic Church asked the government to help fund compensation claims. They wanted taxpayers — Catholic and those of all other and no religions — to pay for their crimes.

This is an amazing display of arrogance from one of the richest institutions in the world. The Western Australian provincial government thought so too, and turned down their plea. With the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clerics telling their stories all over the world, will we see Archbishop Cathal Daly getting out the collection can and asking us to pay for the crimes of his child molesters?