Late on Monday, June 22, 2026, plaintiff law firms representing victims of institutional child sex crimes were invited to an urgent online meeting. At the meeting, the legal representatives of the Christian Brothers, Gilbert + Tobin, read out prepared statements. The information can be condensed into fairly simple language: the Christian Brothers had gone broke.
For how long did the Christian Brothers know they were “going broke” while continuing to settle claims in “good faith”?
The Christian Brothers exist in several forms. There is the unincorporated Congregation of the Christian Brothers (Oceania Province), a non-government organisation. They also exist in the form of a body corporate, the Trustees of the Christian Brothers, and multiple associated entities.
The trustees owned and managed all Christian Brothers schools until 2007, when they set up Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) for the purpose of owning, conducting and managing these educational facilities.
In January 2013, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established by then prime minister Julia Gillard. A month later, EREA was incorporated as a body corporate with seven council members appointed by the Provincial of the Christian Brothers. The council members became the trustees of this newly formed EREA Trust.
A few months later still, the multiple entities of the Christian Brothers and EREA entered into a master agreement to transfer the Christian Brothers’ properties to EREA. This was for a peppercorn consideration. The Christian Brothers excluded a copy of this master agreement from the documents before the court.
The total property, land and equipment value of $2.5 billion was assessed at cost – that is, at book value. The true market value now is considerably higher.
So, the Christian Brothers tell us they have no money and EREA tell us they have nothing to do with the Christian Brothers. Divine magic.
At least 2500 children are estimated to have been raped and assaulted by Christian Brothers. These people have suffered for decades with drugs and alcohol, suicide attempts and shattered lives. That is, if they survived at all. Yet the Christian Brothers continue to treat them with contempt.
If Edmund Rice Education Australia looks, acts, sounds and smells like the Christian Brothers, it is the Christian Brothers – and the Christian Brothers must pay.
Source: The human cost of the Christian Brothers’ asset shifting | The Saturday Paper