Christian Brother Peter Negus isn’t sure he could be as forgiving as some of the victims of abuse he has met in his 16-year involvement with Towards Healing.
Br Negus spoke to The Record late last month as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse probed the theory and practice of the Catholic Church’s protocol for pastoral engagement with victims.
Although there has been criticism the protocol has not been adhered to in pockets of the country, including from one of its architects, Professor Patrick Parkinson, Br Negus says that for the vast majority of victims he has encountered, the process has lived up to its name.
The Salter Point-based brother has been representing his congregation at moderated meetings with victims, arranged and managed by the Archdiocesan Director for Professional Standards, since 1997.
He estimates meeting with around 300 men who were the victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of Christian Brother religious or lay teachers when they were children and adolescents.
He said around 90 per cent of Towards Healing encounters he had been part of had begun or contributed to the path of healing.
In many instances, however, the first meeting provides no such indication as the damage and trauma caused by abuse manifests in the victims he meets.
It is hardly surprising. In one of the worst cases he had heard, a man had been sexually abused as a boy by a religious brother and abused again by a priest when he went to confess what he mistakenly took to be his own guilt.
He ran away from the Christian Brothers school and reported the abuse to police.
The reporting sergeant said “how dare you accuse those good men” and promptly took him back to the site of his abuse.
“He had never been believed,” Br Negus said. “The effect it had on that guy could hardly be measured.”
The consequences Br Negus has seen up close include a profound distrust of authority, and religious authority in particular, and professed difficulties in relating to women.
Br Negus said around 40 per cent of the men he had met with were victims of sexual abuse while the majority had been victims of physical and emotional abuse, sometimes in the form of a negligent or inadequate education.
Back in the 1990s, many of Br Negus’ confreres were dismayed when their then-province leader Br Gerry Faulkner publicly apologised to victims in Perth papers.
“A lot of brothers were critical of it. Most of us didn’t believe it when it came out but it didn’t take long for me to realise that it had happened,” Br Negus said.
“I love being a Christian Brother. I recently celebrated 60 years as a Christian Brother. I just didn’t ever think a brother would sexually interfere with a junior.
“I’ve found it… in fact, I’ve found it hard to forgive them. That’s a weakness in me but I find it hard to forgive those guys who sexually abused innocent kids and still continued to be a brother.
“I remember when it first came out and the accusations were being made and flying all over the place. I used to wear the garb when I used to travel but now I just wear a white shirt because it was humiliating.”
In spite of the sins of the past, Br Negus is enthusiastic about what he has witnessed as a part of Towards Healing.
He says the process of telling, listening and believing that Towards Healing makes possible can effect remarkable change in people’s lives.
“A lot of the guys when they come in won’t even shake your hand but at the end of it are hugging you.”
For many years he has received a Christmas card from one victim’s wife, thanking him for the way he behaved to her husband throughout the process.
“It is like living with a different man,” the woman wrote in the first Christmas card she sent to Br Negus seven years ago, adding “you listened to him and believed him”.
Although both the Director of Professional Standards and facilitators impress on victims that their first right is to go to the police, Br Negus says in his experience, around 95 per cent of men do not want to pursue action through legalistic avenues.
The agreements reached through Towards Healing are strictly confidential.
Most involve the payment of money, which Br Negus said was not an attempt on the part of the Christian Brothers to “pay off” victims but a recognition that the abuse had happened.
Br Negus said he took the privacy of victims extremely seriously.
He was once approached by the mother of one victim asking for the names of other victims of the brother who had abused her son.
“I said ‘look, I can’t do that. It’s a promise I have made.’ Maybe nowadays we’d be forced to do it with the law,” he said, referring to calls for priests to be forced to reveal what they have heard in confession, “but I think I’d rather go to jail than let down all the victims who know that I wouldn’t tell their story”.
While one might expect dealing face-to-face with the grave consequences of other people’s offences would become disturbing, Br Negus said he had found his involvement in Towards Healing to be a moving one.
“More than anything else that I get out of Towards Healing is a sense of uplifting.
“The guy who, as an abused child, went to the police and they didn’t believe him for instance.
“The integrity of the man was just amazing and the integrity and goodness of so many of these guys who have been through hell is very humbling and uplifting.
“At the end of it, when they come to shake hands and embrace, it’s with both hands.”
Details of the Royal Commission’s inquiry into the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse, including Towards Healing, may be found at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au.
The Western Australian Professional Standards Resource Group can be contacted at 9422 7904.