Abuse survivors have won their latest fight against the Christian Brothers. But why did it take so much pain and suffering to get here?

Last month’s announcement that the Catholic order was about to go broke wreaked carnage everywhere I looked. Lives have been thrown into turmoil.

Early last month, Peter* had some welcome news.

The Christian Brothers had agreed to settle. The Catholic order was going to compensate him for his horrific abuse at the hands of a teacher at the Christian Brothers College in St Kilda in the 1980s.

It was a profound moment. At last, Peter was to have some semblance of justice for a childhood marked by deep trauma.

Two weeks later, it turned to dust.

On 22 June, the Christian Brothers issued a stunning public statement that sent shockwaves through the victim-survivor community. The Catholic order said it was about to go broke and could no longer afford to meet the claims of abuse survivors.

Instead, it would sell its remaining 36 properties for about $216m, divide what it could between survivors and other creditors, then disappear.

Survivors would be left considerably shortchanged, including those who, like Peter, had already settled.

The total liability for current and future claims was estimated at $771m. Survivors were likely to receive cents in the dollar from the property sale.

“I feel betrayed and traumatised all over again,” Peter told me, via his lawyers. “The Christian Brothers promised to compensate me. Now they’ve bailed on the agreement and I’m left in limbo.”

I have covered the Christian Brothers for many years. The order has an appalling history of sexual abuse, one of the worst of any arm of the Catholic church.

A staggering 22% of its brothers in Australia were alleged perpetrators – the second highest rate of any Catholic order. Like many religious institutions, the Christian Brothers circulated known paedophile clergy through its vast network of schools and orphanages, allowing offending to continue.

Data from the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shows 1,015 people made child abuse claims against the Christian Brothers between 1980 and 2015, the highest of any Catholic order. The claims named 483 alleged perpetrators across 100 Christian Brothers schools.

Last month’s announcement wreaked carnage everywhere I looked.

I spoke to survivors who said it had led them to contemplate suicide. One survivor who had settled with the Christian Brothers and was awaiting his compensation had taken out a loan, believing he was financially secure, only to have the rug pulled out from beneath him. He faced financial ruin.

Others who were days or weeks away from trial found their hearings suddenly abandoned. One likened it to being stabbed with a “sharp, long, bladed knife to the back”.

Another told me simply: “It’s not human … It’s just not human.”

Survivors all asked the same question: how can an arm of the Catholic church, with its unimaginable wealth, cry poor?

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