In news that shocks absolutely nobody, it turns out the Catholic Church in Australia is quite good at keeping secrets.
While this latest secrecy pales in comparison to their long murky past, a massive investigation by Fairfax Media has turned up property owned by the church valuing an estimated $30 billion nationwide – a figure that has been vastly under-reported by the religious body, especially in the wake of criticism the church is under-compensating its many sexual abuse victims.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was met with resistance by the Catholic Church, who claimed that any compensation paid to sexual abuse victims could result in drastic cutbacks to community services ran by the Church.
During the commission, the Melbourne archdiocese declared $109 million in properties. Fairfax have disputed these figures, which were calculated in 2014 by adding the value of each property upon purchase.
Given that real estate prices have soared somewhat since the ’60s, Fairfax did a little readjusting — based on actual 2018 pricing provided by various Victorian councils — and arrived at a figure of $6.9 billion. Quite a difference.
Extrapolating that information to cover various real estate holdings across the country — including a number of privately-owned schools — it would appear that the Catholic Church owns a whopping $30 billion in Australian property.
Obviously the Church aren’t fans of these findings (although it’s fine; they don’t pay taxes), with a spokesperson from the Sydney Archidiocese telling Fairfax that the church is “more than just buildings”, which neatly sidesteps that they own a hell of a lot of buildings.
“As a charitable organisation it is important to remember we hold most assets for missionary purposes, not for profit,” he continues.
“It seems there are some who see the Catholic Church merely through the prism of assets and property, reporting and regulation.”
