Edmund Rice Christian Brothers head Brother Philip Pinto has said the order's future is uncertain because of costly settlements in child abuse cases. Brother Philip Pinto told Catholic News Service May 7 that the congregation, which has 1,200 members, "just doesn't have the money any longer," CNS reports. He said that the order's decision to seek bankruptcy protection in New York April 28 was aimed at "trying to ensure that people who have been abused are the ones who get the money, not the lawyers," he said during a break in a conference on religious life sponsored by the Conference of Religious of Ireland. Forty percent of the costs relating to abuse settlements were "going to the lawyers," he said. The North American province was especially vulnerable to disappearing, he said, explaining that it would take "something drastic" to save it. "In most of the developed world, we are paying for the sins of the past," he said. "Our brothers are aging, our reputation is in tatters, and the future looks bleak, even hopeless. So many of my brothers hide in their monasteries, afraid of drawing attention to themselves." The Indian-born brother who has been congregational leader since 2002 blamed a culture in which "religious in Ireland were abused by the system." The Christian Brothers Institute, the legal arm of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States amid mounting abuse claims. The majority of claims relate to the order's schools in the Seattle area and Newfoundland in Canada. SOURCE Irish Christian Brothers' future uncertain, order's leader says (Catholic News Service)
