Christian Brothers: Australian court pauses abuse victims' payouts as group claims bankruptcy

An Australian court has granted the religious order Catholic Brothers a pause on payouts to child sex abuse victims after it claimed that it was running out of money to settle millions of dollars in civil claims. The group had told the court it was going broke and that it planned to sell its remaining properties to fund a partial settlement. It sought the payment moratorium to give victims time to consider this scheme, local media reported. The order estimates the group owes victims A$774m ($534m; £400m), which exceeds its $23m cash and $216m property holdings. Founded in Ireland, the Christian Brothers has run schools and orphanages in Australia and New Zealand since the 1850s. According to its website, the Oceania chapter's work involves "adult education, social justice activities with refugees, asylum seekers, indigenous people and disadvantaged youth". But investigations have found that the Christian Brother's schools and orphanages have been the sites of widespread child sexual abuse since the 1950s. In 2013, a royal commission looking into institutional responses to child sexual abuse concluded that the Christian Brothers "completely failed... to protect the most vulnerable c