Brother Julian McDonald answers questions at the inquiry. Picture: Jon Hargest Source: Herald Sun
THE Christian Brothers say it is an "accident of history" that so many pedophiles served in the Ballarat parish at the same time.
The Catholic order had at least four confirmed paedophiles working in Ballarat in the 1970s, but deputy province leader Brother Julian McDonald said there was no evidence of a cultural problem.
"I have no explanation for that... It's certainly an accident of history," he told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry today.
"Was there a culture that encouraged that? I don't believe there is evidence that there was."
Brother McDonald said there had been 266 complaints of abuse made against the Christian Brothers in Victoria, 20 of which had not been pursued.
Six brothers have been jailed for sexual abuse, four of whom remain in the order.
Brother McDonald said a further six brothers had been investigated by police but had not been convicted.
They no longer had contact with children, he said.
Brother McDonald said the order had to accept the collective responsibility for what had happened.
"It reflects on all of us," he said.
Brother McDonald said the organisation didn't have any records of sexual abuse complaints being made in the 1970s other than two cases in Ballarat.
"We can find two situations in which mistakes were definitely made and I will never try to defend that, that is indefensible," he said.
"But we can find only two where we had prior knowledge and I believe it was because of the understanding of pedophilic behaviour ... it was treated as a moral failure, then eventually came to be understood as a psychosexual dysfunction."
Brother McDonald admitted that sexual abuse always had been a crime and always would be a crime.
"A terrible, terrible crime that's ruined lives, and we know that and we knew that and every leader of the Christian Brothers should have known that," he said.
The order was aware of abuse complaints against two Ballarat brothers, but did not tell police, Brother McDonald said.
"Tragically I believe the only action that was taken was that they were reprimanded for what they had done," he told the inquiry.
"This was because the leaders saw the offending as a moral failure. They did not have the knowledge that we have now."
Brother McDonald said he could not defend the decision.
"I have no answer to that," he said.
"I wasn't there. I did not know the thinking other than these matters were dealt with as moral transgressions."
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