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A woman victim forces the Catholic Church to apologise The Catholic Church has apologised to an elderly woman, Rose (not her real name) for the sexual abuse allegedly committed against her in 1947 when she was aged ten. The woman says she was sexually assaulted by Brother Brendan George Carroll, whose nephew is the current Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, the Most Reverend Francis Carroll. Rose says the assaults occurred in Cootamundra, New South Wales, in the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese. She said that Brother Brendan used to masturbate in front of her and other children and had digitally penetrated her and others. Rose says Brother Brendan took away her innocence as a ten-year-old and had introduced her to “sex”. The experience had a disastrous impact on Rose’s life and had “turned her off sex forever”, resulting in problems that helped destroy her subsequent marriage. With the help of the group Broken Rites Rose wrote several times to the Church’s professional standards offices seeking Brother Brendan’s surname, but her requests were ignored. Broken Rites was later able to ascertain that Brother Brendan was in fact born Joseph John Carroll in 1903 and had adopted the religious name Brendan George Carroll. Rose, again with the help of Broken Rites, wrote to Archbishop Francis Carroll, the nephew of Brother Brendan Carroll. After a long delay, Archbishop Carroll replied briefly, saying he would make inquiries at De La Salle Brothers headquarters in Sydney. Subsequently, the Australian office of the De La Salle Brothers made an out-of-court settlement with Rose and apologised for the assaults and sought her forgiveness. Rose is grateful for the help she received from Broken Rites but disappointed that the Church had been so evasive. Brother Brendan died in 1983, aged 80. |
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