The mother of five said her six years at the workhouse affected her "throughout her life".

Mary Cavner, who now lives in the UK, worked at the Good Shepherd's Convent in County Cork, Ireland after her father died.

She was separated from her siblings and despite only being 11 when she arrived, she received no education from the nuns and was often hungry. She worked into the night looking after babies, cleaning, working in the laundries and preparing meals for the nuns.

"They held me there and worked me until I was nearly 18," Cavner said.

"We weren't allowed to talk or associate with anybody else."

Cavner said when she eventually left the convent she found it a shock being back in the outside world.

"It really does affect you," she said.

"My experience in the laundry left me unable to communicate properly.

"I have had really low points as they have made me live this again and to be accused of not telling the truth made me feel rejected."

Although she was initially told she was ineligible for compensation, she has since been informed she will be getting €76,000 (about NZ$132,000).

Cavner's solicitor, Chun Wong, said Cavner's journey has "been very emotional … she's spent longer fighting the Irish government than she had been in the Magdalene Laundry."

She added that Cavner was "never sure if she would ever see the compensation.

"Her fear was always she would die before she got a penny of the money due to her.

"It's never been about the money for Mary because no amount of money is ever going to be able to compensate her for the trauma that she went through as a child, but it's about calling the Irish government to account."

About 10,000 women worked at the Magdalene Laundries, which were initially institutions for "fallen women", between 1922 and 1996.

The women and girls worked behind locked doors, were not allowed to leave and received no wages.

In 2013, the (now former) Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Enda Kenny apologised on the state's behalf for its role in the scandal.

Source

• The Journal
• BBC
• Image: BBC

Seventeen religious denominations - Christian and Jewish - are legally entitled to recover or be compensated for assets confiscated during the post-World War II Cold War.

As the largest denomination, the Catholic church is entitled to receive up to 80 percent of the compensation package.

The assets are valued at about 2.9 billion euros. They include about 40,000 hectares of land, a UNESCO-listed Baroque church, a castle and art works.

The religious groups are also entitled to financial compensation worth 59 billion koruna (about US$2.7 billion) for assets that can't be returned in kind.

The Party says the compensation is "excessive" and has presented a bill for it to be taxed at 19 percent from next year.

The bill is considered likely to pass because of the leverage the Party has with the new minority government of populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

Babis relied on the Party's backing to win a confidence vote last week.

"It boggles the imagination," said Father Stanislav Pribyl, the secretary general of the Czech Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference.

"How can you impose a tax on this (compensation)? We are the creditor and the state is the debtor here!"

Believers are a minority in the Czech Republic's 10.6 million population.

About eight-and-a-half million people identified as non-believers left the religion column empty in the 2011 census.

Under communism, the Catholic church and others suffered severe persecution including the confiscation of property and the imprisonment, torture and killing of priests.

"The Communists have never cut themselves off from their past, they caused economic damage, ruined lives and people's health," Pribyl says.

"If these people now want to slap a tax on the compensation, which is a partial remedy for all that injustice, it's a scandal."

Communist lawmaker Vladimir Konicek, who is leading the tax bill, says "What is scandalous is the amount.

"In the end, they may get the payment and, if the court says yes, the assets too. So, they'll get it twice."

Source:

• CEBY Daily News
• La Croix
• Image: CzechTourism

The Melbourne Response, which was created in 1996 by then-Archbishop George Pell, capped payments to victims at $A50,000 and then $A75,000.

But a Sunday Age analysis of data compiled by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse showed the cap potentially saved the Church up to A$62 million.

Victims paid compensation under the Melbourne Response received an average payout of A$46,000, compared to an average A$270,000 settlement for those who attempted to sue the Church.

The disparity comes despite no victim ever winning a lawsuit against the Church due its policy of fighting all claims regardless of merit and the use of the "Ellis Defence" that prevented the Church from being sued successfully because it does not technically exist as a legal entity, the Sunday Age stated.

It is understood these average A$270,000 payments were made as a result of negotiated settlements after victims had obtained independent legal representation.

The figures show the Church has paid out a total of A$14.8 million in compensation to victims of sexual abuse by priests in the archdiocese of Melbourne.

Francis Moore, executive director of administration for the Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne, said they rejected the A$62 million payout figure.

"The proposition is based on the flawed assumption that victims who have been compensated through the Melbourne Response wanted to go to court and would have succeeded if they had.

"The Melbourne Response provides redress and free counselling without having to prove anything in court," he said.

Mr Moore said the archdiocese also "absolutely rejects" allegations it fights every legal case regardless of merit and noted it does not rely on the Ellis defence.

But earlier this year the Archdiocese of Melbourne was one of many religious institutions and orders around Australia that refused to officially renounce the Ellis defence.

The Sunday Age also reported repeated warnings by senior religious leaders in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s that attempts should be made to prevent written records from being used against the Church in future legal proceedings.

A representative of the archdiocese said the bid to avoid legal discovery was "part of the larger story about the culture of secrecy and something nobody in the Church at the time could be at all proud of".

Sources

• Sunday Age
• Image: Delicious Food and Travel

A man came forward year with the claim against the late Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen of Hildesheim diocese, who died in 1998.

The man said he was abused in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

A payment was made to the man by the diocese in "recognition of his suffering", at the recommendation of the German bishops' conference.

The man made further demands which the diocese rejected.

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Labor will set aside A$33million for the creation of a scheme.

This is aimed at offering counselling services and compensation for survivors of institutional child sex abuse.

The agency would report to the federal attorney general.

There would be three broad goals for the national scheme:

• The chance for survivors to receive a direct personal response from their abuser or the institution that housed their abuser
• Monetary compensation for the abuse suffered
• Counselling and psychological support that is accessible through the course of their lives.

The redress scheme Labor is proposing is essentially that recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

As many as 60,000 people could be eligible for between A$10,000 and A$200,000 in compensation, a report by the royal commission found.

The average compensation payment will be A$65,000.

The cost of redress should be met by the perpetrators of abuse, the commission stated. A figure of $A4billion overall was suggested.

The Commonwealth and state and territory governments should only step in to pay as a last resort.

Australian Opposition leader Bill Shorten said "Labor established the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse to give the thousands of people affected by these evil crimes an opportunity to finally be heard. "

"But we always knew this would only be the start of the process of healing," his statement said.

The Australian federal government has yet to respond to the royal commission's final recommendation on redress handed down three months ago.

Chief executive officer of the Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, said Labor's announcement was the first concrete commitment from a political party, state or federal, to the royal commission's redress proposals.

"Unfortunately it is our current elected representatives that need to be making commitments to a redress scheme," Mr Sullivan said.

Sources

• Guardian Australia
• Perth Now
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Herald Sun

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse issued a case study this week into the programme instituted by then-Archbishop George Pell in 1996.

The study identified 12 systemic issues.

One issue was the role of the Church in determining its own redress.

Another was the "relationship between those delivering or coordinating counselling and pyschological care and those making decisions about the abuse and compensation".

The commission noted that the Church's own law firm was instructing both an independent commissioner and the archdiocese about the same cases.

This raised "a clear potential for conflict. It also raises difficulties with confidentiality".

The commission was also concerned that the independent commissioner who has run the Melbourne Response since 1996 gave victims advice about whether or not it was worth telling police about the abuse with a view to laying criminal charges.

It also berated the commissioner's decision to interview victims in his own offices after survivors told the commission they found the room's size and furnishings intimidating.

The Melbourne Response was designed for an independent commissioner to make inquiries "into allegations of sexual abuse, determine their credibility and make recommendations about action to be taken against those accused of abuse".

It was also to cover the cost of counselling and support, and recommend ex gratia payments to victims.

However, the method by which payments to victims were determined were opaque and should be known to all and consistently followed, the case study noted.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said he will carefully examine how the scheme's independence can be enhanced and potential conflicts of interest be avoided.

Other aspects of the programme will also be reviewed, the archbishop said.

The royal commission also recommended a national redress scheme be established for victims by mid-2017, with institutions where the abuse happened doing the funding.

The Church supported the establishment of such a scheme, which would offer compensation, counselling and psychological care.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• ABC
• Associated Press
• Image: ABC

The Sunday Age reported that a warning was issued by a church insurer to the nation's bishops as early as 1988.

This was more than seven years before the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing protocols for victims were set up.

The Sunday Age investigation was based on internal Church documents.

A proposal for a dedicated abuse victim compensation scheme was made by Catholic Church Insurance Limited in 1990.

CCI set some money aside itself as Australia's bishops debated a course of action.

The bishops ultimately approved the creation of a "special issues" insurance policy and compensation pool in 1991.

The allowed for cover increased from A$5million to $A15million in two years after that.

CCI then issued the Church with a special one year policy that increased coverage to $A25 million, but excluded payments for abuse prior to 1976.

The Church would have to pay directly for claims from before this date.

CCI was experiencing problems in the early 1990s having its insurance exposure to sexual abuse claims underwritten by reinsurance operators.

According to The Sunday Age, the move also came despite the Church's hierarchy continuing to publicly downplay allegations in the early 1990s that the Church was facing a massive sexual abuse scandal.

An internal Church document noted that a "significant number" of claims for damages for sexual abuse had already been received in the early 1990s.

Last year, Cardinal George Pell testified before a royal commission that he was aware of "dozens of complaints" when the Melbourne Response was created in 1996.

Catholic Church authorities have paid more than A$43 million to victims in total since 1997, it is estimated.

The Sunday Age understands CCI has earmarked up to another A$150 million to potentially settle all outstanding and anticipated sexual abuse claims.

Sources

• The Sunday Age
• 9 News
• Image: News.com.au

The Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council chief, Francis Sullivan, said this to a royal commission hearing last week.

Mr Sullivan said the Church supported a national scheme administered by the federal government and funded by institutions responsible for abuse.

This model was widely supported by victims and advocacy groups.

Mr Sullivan said the compensation of abuse victims needs to be handled independently.

"The days of the Church doing its own investigations are over," he said.

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Justice Peter McClellan said some Australian institutions where children were abused either have no money or no longer exist.

He chairs the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Justice McClellan said the commission would publish a paper in January, 2015, with proposals on compensation.

It will publish final proposals in mid-2015.

He said one of the elements in an effective response to victims "is a lump sum payment, which marks the abuse and recognises the failure of the institution to keep the person safe as a child".

He said because some institutions had ceased to exist and others had no money, some abuse survivors have no access to compensation.

Justice McClellan said this fell short of the commission's brief of ensuring justice for all victims.

The Catholic and Anglican churches in Australia have been pushing for a government-run scheme to which they would contribute.

Survivor groups such as Care Leavers Australia Network want an interim scheme immediately as some of its members are very old.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance has argued the government should not take charge of the scheme as some homes were government-run and there would be a vested interest to keep payments low.

The alliance wants an independent panel to run the scheme.

Justice McClellan said it was fundamentally important abuse survivors received a meaningful apology and had access to counselling or psychiatric care.

"The answer can only be found in a secure source of funds.

"By some means, funding must be found which ensures that professionals are available to keep people alive and otherwise provide them with the capacity to function effectively," he said.

Sources

• The West Australian
• Image: ABC

Jalesi Nakarawa complained to the Human Rights Review Tribunal that Affco New Zealand terminated his job on religious grounds.

Tribunal's orders:

* A declaration is made that Affco committed a breach of the Human Rights Act 1993 by discriminating against Mr Nakarawa for reason of his religious beliefs;

* Damages of $12,118.00 are awarded for loss of wages;

* Damages of $15,000.00 are awarded for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to the feelings of Mr Nakarawa;

* Affco, in conjunction with the Human Rights Commission, provides training to its management staff in relation to their and Affco's obligations under the Human Rights Act 1993.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
  
• Image: news.msn.co.nz

Compensation totalling $NZ58 to 98 million will be paid to the estimated 770 survivors of more than 10,000 women who lived in the dozen facilities from the 1920s to 1996.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said the aim was to compensate the women for their years of unpaid labour and public shame in the workhouses.

The tax-free payments will range from $NZ19,500 each for women who spent less than three months working in a laundry, to up to $NZ170,000 for those who spent 10 years or more there.

Although the laundries were owned and run by four religious congregations of nuns, the Irish state was responsible for about a quarter of all referrals.

Possible reasons included poverty, the loss of a mother, disability, the risk of becoming pregnant, being sexually abused, and having had a second child outside marriage.

But a government inquiry found that most girls were not told why they were put away.

The inquiry found that the laundries were "a harsh and physically demanding work environment" and many of the girls experienced them as "lonely and frightening places".

The inquiry report said: "The psychological impact on these girls was undoubtedly traumatic and lasting."

But the inquiry found that 61 per cent of residents had spent less than one year in the institutions — a finding that did not live up to the stereotype of laundry life portrayed by film-makers.

The four Catholic congregations that ran the laundries have expressed their regrets for how they had treated women and girls in their care.

Sources:

Irish Examiner

RTE

Image: Yahoo! News

The chief executive of the Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council — which will represent the Church at the royal commission — said the experience will be embarrassing but it is imperative the truth emerges.

"We are going to encourage, wherever possible, individuals to come forward with their experiences so that the truth can come out," said Francis Sullivan.

"The Church leadership in Australia have made it clear that they are going to be open and honest and co-operate fully."

He said any existing confidentiality agreements would be cancelled so victims could tell their stories. On compensation, he said: "We are dead keen on making sure that compensation, and appropriate compensation, is put in place."

Sullivan said the task of the council also involves advising the Church on the best practice changes to protect children and prevent sexual abuse.

"This is a crucial task as the Church demonstrates through its actions that the welfare and safety of children are the highest priority," he said.

When the royal commission opened its sittings on April 3, the chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said more than 5000 submissions were expected, so it was unlikely that the deadllne of December 2015 would be met.

Justice McClellan said the commission would aim to right the wrongs of the past.

"Although a painful process, if a community is to move forward, it must come to understand where wrongs have occurred and so far as possible, right those wrongs," he said.

"It must develop principles which, when implemented through legislation and changes in the culture and management practices of institutions and the behaviour of individuals, will ensure a better future for subsequent generations."

Sources:

AAP

Catholic Leader

Radio Australia

Royal Commission website

Image: News.com

The deal under which the Czech government will pay churches billions of dollars was signed despite left-wing opposition in what is the European Union's most atheistic nation.

Those who signed the agreement — including Catholics, Protestants and Jews — will receive just over half of their former properties now held by the state, plus compensation for those that were destroyed.

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The game, the brainchild of a philosophy student, is described as philosophy-themed and strategy-based. Opus Dei is demanding that its trademark be revoked and financial compensation be paid.

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The court, which has jurisdiction over 47 European countries, said Poland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights because the girl — who was allegedly raped as a 14-year-old — was denied an abortion at hospitals in her home town and in Warsaw.

The teenager, identified only as P, eventually had an abortion in Gdansk, some 500 kilometres from her home, after the Ministry of Health intervened.

The Strasbourg-based court declared the abortion refusal was "inhumane and degrading", and said the girl did not receive objective medical counseling.

The court ordered Poland to pay compensation of 30,000 euros to the girl and 15,000 to her mother, who favoured an abortion.

Polish attorney Karina Walinowicz called the European court's verdict "completely out of order and conflicting with Polish law".

"I'm really worried this could dangerously impact future cases," she told the Catholic News Agency. 
Poland's current law allows for abortion in three cases: rape or incest, if the mother's health is at grave risk, or if the fetus suffers from a disease or malformation.

Poland and Ireland are the only two countries in the European Union which have not implemented the EU's abortion laws.

Anette Ignatowicz, a former policy advisor for European Dignity Watch, an organisation that investigates EU institutions, called the court's decision "yet another attempt to push legalising abortion in Poland".

Opinion polls show that Poles are becoming increasing pro-life, with 76 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 favouring a total ban on abortion.

According to one of Poland's biggest opinion poll agency, CBOS, those who viewed abortion as acceptable went down dramatically from 65 per cent in 1993 to 9 per cent in 2011. Another Polish market research agency, Grupa IQS, found that 65 per cent of Poles viewed abortion as unacceptable in 2011.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Reuters

Image: Asbarez.com

After more than 20 years of discussions, the country's Chamber of Deputies has passed a bill returning the former property to 17 churches, of which the Catholic Church is the largest.

Under the bill, which is yet to be debated by the Senate, the state will gradually cease financing the churches over a period of 17 years.

The churches are to get back land and real estate worth $NZ4.5 billion and be given $NZ3.5 billion in financial compensation for unreturned property.

The largest amount of compensation, $NZ2.8 billion, will go to the Catholic Church.

Applications for property return must be filed by original owners. Because of population shifts, parishes that are now small may gain large properties and parishes that have grown large may gain nothing.

A spokeswoman for the Czech Catholic Bishops' Conference, Veronika Vyvodova, said the Church is yet to discuss how to handle the restored property.

"We are at the very beginning. It is clear that negotiations inside dioceses must be held in order to prevent discrepancies and to secure a certain level of solidarity," she said.

The Church may let or sell the property it receives, or use it for business purposes, the newspaper Lidove Noviny reported.

This has been done by some religious orders that have had property returned in the past. For example, a former monastery in Brno, returned to the Bohemian-Moravian branch of the Roman Union of the Order of St Ursula, hosts a shopping centre and earns money for the Order.

On the other hand, the north Bohemian Trmice parish's effort to run a logging business ended in its bankruptcy and a loss of property.

Source:

Prague Monitor

Image: Prague Post