In the High Court, the congregation has adopted a strategy that, Gordon said, is unique in his experience. Because the Christian Brothers is an unincorporated association, it cannot be sued directly. Most religious congregations select a nominee to represent it for the purpose of litigation, but in the case of Grace, and about 30 other historical child sex abuse claims currently lodged in the High Court, the Christian Brothers have opted not to do so.
The congregation’s strategy is working, according to Damian O’Farrell, an independent councillor on Dublin City Council who settled a historical sex abuse claim against the brothers some years ago, before they adopted their current strategy. “Victims are being put off, because they are hearing how long this is taking one victim,” he said. “Their families are advising them not to go forward with this, and I think [their] solicitors as well are struggling, they are having cash flow problems.
The congregation has been involved in the sale of land close to schools in recent years, including land at Oatlands, Mount Merrion, Dublin, sold in 2013 to a property developer for an undisclosed price, and land in Deansgrange, Dublin, sold in 2017 to a builder for a reported €18 million.
In 2001, when he was the global head of the Christian Brothers, Garvey strongly rejected suggestions that assets owned by the congregation in Canada might have been transferred to Richmond Newstreet. The comments were made against the backdrop of the congregation in Canada going into liquidation because of a massive child abuse scandal at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland, and resultant claims for damages. Garvey said “not a cent” had been moved from Canada to Richmond Newstreet.
The money given to the brothers in Africa, according to the accounts, “enabled the Christian Brothers and their co-workers to live in or near their ministries thus resulting in direct or indirect involvement with tens of thousands of beneficiaries”. The surviving Irish membership is mostly elderly. Because of the strategy adopted in the Grace case, there are now 120 brothers named as defendants in those proceedings, all of whom are elderly. Some live in nursing homes, and others in houses owned by the congregation. Three, including Hendrick, are or were up to recently in prison for child sex abuse offences. Fifteen of the defendants have died.