• Research conducted by former vicar John Thorburn and presented at the American Psychological Association conference in 1999, found that a sixth of Church of England vicars in Britain had extra-marital affairs and another sixth was attracted to other men. This makes British vicars more likely to be unfaithful to their wives than businessmen. Just under half the vicars surveyed admitted indulging in pornographic books and videos, one in 10 visited strip clubs and "a few" also used prostitutes, citing loneliness and depression as the driving force behind their behaviour.
  
  
• In 1999, The Queensland Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children, led by former state Governor Leneen Forde, uncovered such pervasive abuse that 14 allegations of criminal conduct, including criminal, physical and sexual abuse, were referred to police. The 380-page report examined 1,500 files and interviewed 300 alleged victims from more than 150 Catholic and non-Catholic homes, orphanages and child detection centres operated from 1911 to the present. The report concluded that the history of institutional care in Queensland until the 1980s was one of sacrificing children’s interests to expedience. There were many cases of children being preyed upon by paedophiles in some institutions, abused, raped, starved and flogged, sometimes with great fury, using belts and sticks. Often the children bled from the beatings, were forced to strip and endure cold as punishment, were locked up in darkness and force-fed when they would not eat. Over-all, the report found widespread abuse, neglect and deprivation in institutions for children.
  
  
• Victoria’s largest class action was underway in 1999, with more than 100 former state wards alleging systematic sexual, psychological and physical abuse at homes and orphanages across rural and metropolitan Victoria that were run by several religious and lay bodies, notably Catholic nuns. Some cases stem from 1955 to 1965 and involve children being flogged, used as virtual slave labour, being victimised by paedophiles and, in some cases, being shared among fellow staffers by their abusers. Ms Vivian Waller, of the Melbourne law firm Maurice Blackburn & Co, confirmed legal proceedings were underway and that "both boys and girls were repeatedly forced (by male and female staff) to perform indecent acts and to participate in sexual intercourse". She added that the abuse was often "repeated and severe" and that the state, "was the legal guardian of each state ward and had a moral and legal duty to ensure the safety of each child". More than 200 former wards have given their histories to the law firm, many of whom have viable legal claims and those who experienced the most severe forms of abuse may be awarded as much as $200,000 in compensation.
  
  
• A 1998 Tasmanian independent report into allegations of sexual misconduct and paedophilia by senior Anglican Church officials received 160 telephone call and 40 pages of face-to-face submissions relating to sexual abuse by clergy, staff, teachers and volunteers -- identifying 17 individuals as abusers, 15 of which were members of the clergy. The report, known as Not The Way Of Christ, found there was a hard-core group of clergy with sexual tendencies towards young males, described by a member trying to break away from the group as the "grubby little circle". Two males and one female also disclosed being raped as children and one male told how he and his sister were sexually abused over a five year period. The report also found eight women had entered into sexual relationships with ministers as adults and eleven people said they’d been victims of sexual abuse while boarding at Anglican schools. Several people also raised concerns about a lack of action by the church over the allegations.
  
  
• According to Broken Rites, a support organisation for victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse from members of religious organisations, 35 Catholic priests and religious brothers in Australia were sentenced for sexual crimes and five other died before their cases reached court, between 1993 and 1997. Another eight had been committed and awaited trial or magistrates’ hearings while a further dozen were charged on summons. Others were still under investigation by Police.
  
  
• The New Criminology, by Max D Schlapp and Edward E Smith, studied two generations of statistics examining the population of prisons and found that about 1% of those incarcerated were atheists or people without religious training. The vast majority of inmates had been brought up with religious training and that more than half the prison population came from Catholic backgrounds in particular.
  
  
• A newspaper article published in 1995 claimed that from 1987 to 1995, nearly 100 Christian Brothers, from Sydney, Wollongong, Toowoomba, Perth and Darwin, had been accused of misconduct -- typically the sexual abuse of schoolchildren.
  

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