The Order of the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God came to Australia from Ireland in 1947. Its first work was a residential school in New South Wales for boys with learning difficulties called Kendall Grange at Morriset Park, in the Hunter region (1948-2000). The Order also ran children’s homes and family services in Victoria and New Zealand, but withdrew from providing children’s services around 2005. The New South Wales chapter is based in Burwood.
Members of the Order of the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God have been implicated in a number of legal cases involving assaults on children in their institutions across Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, a report from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse stated that, “for religious institutes with non-ordained religious members, taking into account duration of ministry … the St John of God Brothers had the highest overall proportion of members who were alleged perpetrators (40.4%)” (p.16).
On 9 November 2012 the New South Wales Premier announced a special commission of inquiry into allegations of a cover-up of child sex abuse by priests in the Hunter region. On 10 November 2012 The Sydney Morning Herald stated that St John of God Brothers who had been named in a Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse had also worked in New South Wales, and been involved in the abuse of disabled boys at Kendall Grange. St John of God Brothers in New Zealand were also convicted of serious sexual assaults and institutions run by the Order were investigated in that country’s royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care (2018-2024).
From
1947
To
Current
Alternative Names
Brothers of St John of God
The Hospitaller Order of St John of God
St John of God Order
Order of St John of God
St John of God Brothers
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