Subscribe to receive the latest local voices straight to your inbox. Older students that I knew warned me to stay away from certains teachers and Brothers. Barry Cronan made it his business to know everybodys business. This remains the goal we set ourselves at Marist College Canberra, a Catholic school for boys from Years 4 to 12. The court must now decide if a sentence should be imposed, and the case will most likely be referred to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. While Shawn and I welcome Jeff to engage with us and speak with us on any of these issues (and have multiple times in the past now), he continues to ignore us. And its just another reason why you need to check your church, my friends. John William Chute, 86, who went by the name Brother Kostka at Marist College in the 1970s and 1980s, was accused of abusing several boys in his care. This refusal to engage with us, the unstable reaction to our questioning in general, and the high probability that no one at Apologia Church will be able to ask these questions (and share the answers with anyone outside the church) are all just a big, fat, waving red flag, you guys. ( Supplied) The mother of a Newcastle teenager who killed himself more than 40 years ago has told the child abuse royal commission she believes a group of Marist Brothers were "looking for evidence" at her home after the death. All rights reserved. We care about the protection of your data. I HAVE ONLY RECENTLY DISCOVERED THAT MY BROTHER WAS SEXUALLY MOLESTED, HUMILIATED, WHIPPED ON HIS BACKSIDE WITH THE CANE AND WITH HIS SCHOOL TROUSERS PULLED DOWN BY brother kosta. the-riotact.com | riotact.com.cn | regionriverina.com.au | aboutregional.com.au | b2bmagazine.com.au | thisiscanberra.com | mygungahlin.com.au. Use your own skills of discernment and investigation to determine whether this claim holds any water (or even thick, grainy sludge). In February 2008, a teacher at Marist College Canberra, Brother John William Chute (also known as Brother Kostka), pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to 11 charges of indecently assaulting students of the college during the 1980s. ACT Government again bragging about technology that has been in place for years in other View, All ACT Government services are being reduced to pay for the tram that is going to be slower than View, Why does it need to be? Unfortunately for him, its fairly easy to refute those claims, and beyond that, it was now becoming clear to me that not only was he avoiding my questions, but he was also attempting to deflect, distract, and smoke-screen their existence entirely. 13 - The response of the Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse against Brothers Kostka Chute and Gregory Sutton, was released today.. "The abuse we get on social media, the name calling and the graffiti on our signs, these acts could sow the seeds of doubt about why we bother to stay here," Mr Sidorko said. As for a group of Canberra ex-students going along to the sentence, that happens from time to time in Sydney. A lawyer being sued over the advice he gave to a victim of child sexual abuse to settle his claim says the man's allegations were unlike anything he had heard before or since. But his dementia and Parkinson's Disease have left him too ill to attend court, and unable to enter a plea on the charges. As I said before we have the answers now ! Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Reach out to them at 480-858-2316. Has the Multicultural Festival outgrown Civic? I put an email together and sent it off to Apologia Church with my usual list of questions for the church. They published the episode on YouTube behind our backs, without contacting either of us to let us know they would talk about us or trying to hash out our differences one-on-one before going online and slandering us to thousands of people. I was at Marist at the time this was happening in the 80s. Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Your one-stop destination for the latest Capital region property and real estate news. You can check out CAMPUS and McCraney yourself. I did what I always do. In 2008, he was charged and convicted of 19 child sex offences against six children he taught at Marist College Canberra. Read it for yourselves and tell me if forgetting to include final judgment makes me lost or part of a cult. I still feel that the other teachers could have done more, they must have known it more that a rumor. Leaving Penshurst in late 1972, Chute taught at Marcellin Junior College in Coogee and Marist Brothers School in Paramatta, before leaving for his second novitiate in Switzerland in 1975. Expert strata, facilitiesand building management services. It will lose View, I would love to see the airlines have some real competition on this route. Mr Barry Cronan, assuming hes still alive. It appears that the explanation for his sudden disappearance was that hed either tried something with one of us or the brothers got wind of his inclinations and/or past deeds and moved him on fast. Girls were only 10-and-a-half years old on average when they were abused. Information concerning child sexual abuse was usually held by the Provincial (a person with direct authority over the Brothers in that Province) and, with some rare exceptions, seemed not to have been passed on to their successors or to the Provincial Council. As for whether he liked little boys and/or did anything to any of my fellow students I dont know. How can they have worked at Marist all this time yet not even heard a whisper of all this??? 20% of the Marist Brothers order between 1950 and 2010 were paedophiles. The only factors in being chosen was the personal taste of the individual peopdophile, theyre risk assessment of each intended victim and the opportunity each had to indulge themselves in our childhood. I could not in good conscience share this information with others without first determining that such heartbreaking and devastating abuse can be verified with proof. "The number of cases of abuse and the number of abusers across the religious orders, the priesthood and the laity reflects very badly on our church. Before 1992, there was nothing kept in writing concerning the transfer of Brothers nor, before 1983, were written records kept of allegations against, or admissions by, Brothers. I was caught up in the exchange on Apologias video comments for a while. The very next day, on the 22nd, Jeff Durbin finally responded to me. The latest news as it happens from Canberra and the surrounding region. @Martha understand your emotional attachment to it but getting emotional like that wont help you or your brother. What an unspeakable betrayal of the trust of our parents this is. Jeff Durbin is one of these people, and personally, I think he saw my affiliation with McCraney as a way out. "It ought to have been obvious to Brother Turton that the arrangements were inadequate and ineffective", the report said. So the decision was taken to sell the property and to use the proceeds to transfer the school to Canberra. However one brother we had definitely was gay, and I saw him in Sydney city on a street corner years later in civvies approaching adult men. Ask yourselves if my personal affiliations or doctrinal views are even relevant when asking questions like these. 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But he thinks he should remain a priest, How Maggie Dent's smart watch helped her avoid a potential stroke, and her message for women everywhere, Woman dies following police pursuit of erratic driver in Melbourne's west, Evelyn worked three jobs when she was in her 20s to build up her super. (I would have said Satan but wanted to lighten the mood just a little). Anyone that knows anything about CAMPUS Church or Shawn McCraney knows that there is no danger of cult-like practices or treatment with them. "I can only say again, as I did in the Royal Commission, even though my client is not fit and he's demented, that there's a sincere apology again to all of the victims," he said. These days, the teaching and care of the students is carried out by dedicated lay people who identify with the educational charism of Marcellin Champagnat and wish to see it preserved and enhanced. They should not have happened," Mr Sidorko wrote. And last but not least, he still has answered none of our questions, church checkers. Read our Privacy Policy. I am a criminal defence lawyer and know Kostkas lawyer although I havent discussed the case with him, and wont be. This also makes him culpable in my eyes. One of our feeder schools was in Hunters Hill, and I remember hearing of Kostka although he never taught where I was. In an Apologia Studios episode entitled Special: Responding to False Witness, Jeff Durbin admits to recording a phone call from Tim Hurd without his knowledge or consent, recording Hurd confessing his sins against Durbin and Apologia church. If true, these accusations would lead anyone to conclude that Apologia Church is spiritually abusive to its members. "Brother Hill's failure to take appropriate action meant that children at Ashgrove, including particularly vulnerable children, were at risk of being sexually abused by Brother Patrick," the report said. Such a school was quite an innovation for those days, when having even primary schooling made one well educated. In an Apologia Studios episode entitled Special: Responding to False Witness, Jeff Durbin admits to recording a phone call from Tim Hurd without his knowledge or consent, recording Hurd confessing his sins against Durbin and Apologia church.Jeff Durbin also admits to being the one who anonymously posted the recorded discussion on YouTube, rather than putting it out under his own name or . While he has suggested on his podcast episode that he has no problem answering them and gives the impression that he did, he did not. The College enjoys strong support from its parent body and this support has enabled it to keep abreast of educational developments. We seek to live in solidarity with others, letting our presence be a good example to our students and those with whom we work. Maintain inner calm, be rational and practical and the fucker will go down. But Bravehearts ambassador Damian De Marco believed the total number of victims at Marist College Canberra would be much higher. 1) This may be the largest case of its kind in Australian history. But Im sure there were indeed many who were subjected to torturous things: I hope theyre all represented in this case but also that all of their claims are legit.