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Catholic Church paid A$276m to abuse victims in Australia
The Australian Catholic Church has paid A$276m (£171m; $213m) to victims of sexual abuse since 1980, an inquiry has heard. The money was divided between thousands of victims, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse was told. The data, released on Thursday, showed the average payment was A$91,000.
The Catholic Church made the payments in response to 3,066 of 4,445 child sexual abuse claims between 1980 and 2015, the inquiry heard. More than 40% of claims were received by a handful of male orders.
"The royal commission's experience is that many survivors face barriers which deter them from reporting abuse to authorities and to the institution in which the abuse occurred," Ms Furness said. "Accordingly, the total number of incidences of child sexual abuse in Catholic Church institutions in Australia is likely to be greater than the claims made."
Reflecting on the findings, abuse survivor Andrew Collins told the BBC it had been "drummed into his head" by the four men who abused him between the ages of seven and 14 - two teachers, a priest and a Catholic Brother - that he was the one who had "done wrong". "I did try to tell my mum once and she said it was absolute rubbish and a man of God would never do such a thing," he said.
One victim said he was sexually abused by his Catholic Christian Brother teacher in his classroom, with other students ordered to look away. In another case, the inquiry heard allegations that a priest threatened a girl with a knife and made children kneel between his legs.
Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, said last year the church had made "enormous mistakes" and "catastrophic" choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counselling of priests to solve the problem.
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