Christian Brothers in Australia transferred millions in property ahead of settlement, report claims

A Christian group that is facing closure in Australia and elsewhere amid efforts to settle abuse lawsuits reportedly transferred millions of dollars’ worth of property to a separate Catholic entity over a period of years, according to allegations in a major news report.

Christian Brothers Oceania Province said on June 22 it was proposing a plan to facilitate the “orderly distribution of [its] remaining property, funds, and other assets” to victims of abuse by congregation members.

The organization said its remaining property totaled around $216 million and that it would move to distribute that value to both abuse victims and the future care of its brothers in the province, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.

A June 26 report by the Guardian, meanwhile, alleged that the group “has spent the last decade transferring large, multimillion-dollar property holdings for amounts of $1 to a separate Catholic church entity,” one that is “not part of the proposed sell-off scheme.”

The report alleges that the Edmund Rice Education Australia received the property deals from the brothers. The organization was “created in 2007 to assume control of schools previously associated with the Christian Brothers” including institutions in Sydney and Brisbane.

The Guardian did not publish the documents in full, though it did include excerpts of some documents in its report.

The newspaper alleged that the documents show “in New South Wales alone, the Christian Brothers transferred 26 separate properties to Edmund Rice Education Australia for amounts of $1 or $0 between 2013 and 2024.”

Those properties “are now worth well over” $50 million, the paper said, and include homes, schools, and vacant lands.

Neither the Christian Brothers group nor Edmund Rice Education Australia responded to requests for comment from EWTN News regarding the Guardian report. But the education group told the Guardian that it would “not be selling property to help the Christian Brothers” in its settlement, the paper said.

The group told the newspaper that it was established as a “separate legal entity” for stewarding the schools.

A spokesperson for the Christian Brothers group, meanwhile, told the Guardian that its “current advisers” were “not involved” in the establishment of either the education group or the property transfers.

The spokesperson said the property transfers would be subject to “scrutiny” amid the broader settlement efforts by Christian Brothers.

The Christian Brothers congregation was founded in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice in Waterford, Ireland. It was formally recognized by the Holy See in 1820.