Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart is a religious order of priests and brothers that was founded in France in 1854. Today, the international leadership team of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart is based in Rome and consists of the superior general, assistant generals, and members of the general council. The Order includes two congregations of religious women, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Since its inception, the Order has been involved in missionary activity in Oceania. In 2013, the Australia Province consisted of approximately 140 members. The Order mainly does work in parishes and retreat centres, education work with Indigenous communities, work in the media, chaplains to prisons, universities and hospitals, ministering to people living with HIV/AIDS and work in trades.
Like many other religious orders around Australia, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been involved in allegations and matters involving chid sexual and physical abuse. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has provide the following figures in relation to the Order:
86 people made a claim of child sexual abuse received by the Missionaries of the Sacred
Heart (2% of all claims of child sexual abuse).
This represents 16% of all claims received by religious institutes with priest and religious brother members.
Of these claims of child sexual abuse:
a. 34 (40%) identified one or more lay person as an alleged perpetrator.
b. 31 (36%) identified one or more priest as an alleged perpetrator.
c. 18 (21%) identified one or more religious brother as an alleged perpetrator.
Some claims identified more than one alleged perpetrator with differing religious statuses.
One (1%) person made a claim of child sexual abuse which identified more than one alleged perpetrator.
10 (12%) people who made a claim of child sexual abuse also made an allegation of physical abuse.
The gender of claimants (where the gender was reported) was 88% male and 12% female.
The average age of the claimants at the time of the alleged child sexual abuse was 13 years of age.
28% of claimants were under the age of 13 years at the time of the alleged child sexual abuse and 72% were between 13 and 18 years of age (where the age was known).
85% of claimants alleged that the incidents of child sexual abuse occurred in the period from 1970 to 1989 (inclusive).
The largest proportion of claimants alleged that the first incident of child sexual abuse occurred in the 1980s (46%).
Moody Law has in the past represented and is currently representing other clients who have been sexually and physically abused by members of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart at different institutions around Australia.
We invite former victims to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.
Call us or complete the confidential enquiry form below.