On Monday, the CCI informed shareholders and staff of the decision, which will result in the closure of the insurer for new business.

Despite this decision, CCI remains solvent and will honour existing claims, including those related to historic sex abuse cases.

The church leadership has assured victims that the gradual shutdown will not affect their claims. The board of CCI described the process as a voluntary "run-off."

Repercussions for Catholic dioceses

The insurer's demise is expected to have repercussions for Catholic dioceses across Australia. Nonetheless, officials emphasise that existing claims will continue to be funded.

CCI's shareholders, who are Australian dioceses, had considered injecting additional capital into the insurer after providing $170 million previously to cover sex abuse claims.

However, the CCI board stated that it could not secure the necessary capital to sustain its operations and meet regulatory requirements.

Although CCI will remain an authorised insurer under the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, it will no longer issue new or renewal policies.

The insurer has offered affected policyholders with contracts expiring in the coming weeks a short-term renewal until June 30.

Joan Fitzpatrick, Chair of CCI, reassured stakeholders that the insurer possesses sufficient assets to meet its current commitments.

"The CCI board and management deeply regret that it has been necessary to make this decision and would like to assure all staff, policyholders and suppliers that it has sufficient assets to meet its commitments as they currently stand," Fitzpatrick said.

Historic sex abuse claims

The financial struggles of CCI have been attributed primarily to the large number of historic sex abuse claims. However, the insurer has also faced payouts for climate-related issues affecting its customers.

Timothy Costelloe, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, and Peter Jones, President of Catholic Religious Australia, have expressed their support for abuse victims and reiterated their commitment to justice and compassion.

The pair acknowledged the need for compensation and pledged to continue working towards healing and justice for the crimes and sins that have occurred within the church.

Sources

The Australian

Life Insurance International

In June, the New South Wales courts permanently stayed a civil claim brought by a survivor, known as GLJ, who alleged horrific abuse at the hands of Father Clarence Anderson in Lismore in 1968 when she was 14.

The court ruled there could not be a fair trial because Anderson was dead, leaving the church unable to respond properly to the survivor's allegations.

Anderson, a known abuser, died in 1996.

The Church argued that the delay in coming forward means it is unable to investigate the victim's accusations, making a fair trial impossible.

The Guardian does not detail the amount of compensation that was offered.

Some church bodies in Australia carry insurance that also covers sexual abuse.

Victims' lawyers say the Catholic church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to alleged victims, using recent rulings to pressure survivors to accept "paltry amounts" or risk having their claims permanently blocked.

The pursuit of stay applications in such cases appears to be particularly prevalent in New South Wales.

A review of recent cases shows at least five in which the Catholic or Anglican church have raised the death of an alleged paedophile priest, brother, or teacher to argue that the case against them should be permanently stayed.

Grace Wilson, a partner at Rightside Legal, a firm that regularly deals with abuse cases, said the church had become increasingly desperate in its tactics, describing stay applications as the "latest effort to encourage survivors to go quietly."

Wilson describes it as "pretty galling to survivors for the Church to say, ‘Our paedophile priest, whom we did nothing to deter, is dead and we can't properly defend the claim because of that,'" she said.

The Catholic church and its lawyers were contacted for comment over the small level of payouts. However, in a statement following the GLJ case, it said it could not comment due to the potential of a high court appeal.

The church said its strategy for responding to child abuse claims would "continue to be guided by the unique facts and circumstances of each case".

'.

Sources

• The Guardian
• CathNews NZ

"We will not take money from the Church's yearly parish contributions, we will not use donations that the faithful make to us for [our missions]", Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) announced on Monday.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in Church (ICSA) urged the Church to pay survivors with its own assets instead of relying on donations from parishioners. They insisted each person be compensated individually and said the reparations should be studied case by case.

Paying reparations to survivors without counting on donations from parishioners will cause the French Church significant financial stress.

The Catholic Church has been robbed of its assets twice in French history.

The first occasion was during the French Revolution in 1789. The second instance occurred in 1905, following a law separating the Church and state was instituted.

That means most churches belong to and are not owned and maintained by the Church but by local municipalities. And unlike most other European countries, the Church in France doesn't receive any state subsidies.

"The entirety of the Church's income comes from donations. We live off donations," deputy secretary-general and director of communications at the CEF Karine Dalle told FRANCE 24.

The total sum the French church needs to compensate victims is not yet defined, but it will be immense. Moreover, as other survivors come forward, the compensation is expected to grow.

"The 330,000 victims in the report are a statistic for now. We still don't have their names. We don't know who they are," Dalle said.

"We're completely in the dark."

It will be up to the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR), headed by lawyer Marie Derain de Vaucresson, to determine the exact amount allocated to each survivor.

"We will ensure that no one is left behind," Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort told reporters after the annual meeting of bishops held last week.

In October, the ICSA released a monumental report unveiling the extent of child sexual abuse that has taken place in the hands of the French Catholic Church.

Part of the report included recommendations on how the Church should compensate the survivors.

Sources

• France24
• New York Times

So far the church in Victoria has been hit with at least 800 new legal actions for child sexual abuse since state legislation allowed new rights for survivors.

They include a statute of limitation (abolished in July 2015) and a provision known as the Ellis Defence (abolished in July 2018) which effectively prevented people suing the church as an institution.

Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews could help by pumping extra money into the legal system, survivors and their representatives say.

This would enable courts to hire more judges and staff to deal with the increase in abuse settlement cases.

The court system's current delays are "traumatising" says Melbourne lawyer Judy Courtin.

They "need to be addressed at a government level to prevent further premature deaths and more suicides," she says.

She has had recent experience of some people's response to these delays: her firm has had three survivors die in about four months while they waited for justice.

Some abuse victims say they have been warned they may have to wait up to 15 months for a trial date.

Others have learnt that long-awaited reforms allowing them to challenge unfair compensation payments they previously accepted will also take time, because they still have to apply to the courts to set aside their deed-of-release.

These deeds were agreements that forced victims to sign away their rights to take further legal action.

The courts will now have to decide if those deeds should be set aside or not.

The government has confirmed its latest budget already includes $128.9 million to increase capacity in the courts.

The funds include a new Supreme Court judge, two new County Court judges and 18 new magistrates.

"Survivors of institutional abuse have already had to endure years of suffering and we're doing everything we can to support them," the Attorney-General says.

Source

• The Age
• Image: Billard Leece Partnership