'Church should not have apologised for Australia child migrants' plight'

Sunday, 21st March 2010
Times of Malta
Ariadne Massa

Malta's former emigration minister does not believe the Archbishop had cause to apologise for the abusive treatment child migrants received at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Australia more than 50 years ago.
Alexander Cachia Zammit, a Nationalist minister between 1962 and 1971, said although he admired Mgr Paul Cremona's decision to apologise and did not wish to interfere, he did not believe the Maltese Church was to blame.
"The child migrant scheme was organised by the Australian government and the apology should have come from the Australian Church (which it did), because we have nothing to do with the Christian Brothers," the 85-year-old told The Sunday Times.
He believes the government is the least one to blame in all this, but added: "Everyone's apologising these days."
Dr Cachia Zammit said: "I don't want to point fingers, but if the Christian Brothers are to blame then so be it. Whoever apologised did so because they felt it, but we (Malta) have nothing to do with it."
Australia's Roman Catholic Church and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year publicly apologised to British and Maltese child migrants who suffered abuse including rape, whippings and slave labour in religious institutions.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Mgr Cremona followed suit and last week, ahead of the convention for the Maltese who live abroad, apologised to the 310 child migrants for the suffering endured after they were shipped to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.
The children were sent to Australia through the efforts of Maltese political and ecclesiastical authorities, with the consent of parents or guardians. However, it later emerged they were forced to work in institutions and many were not given the education they were promised. A number of them, including British and Irish children, suffered physical and sexual abuse.
Their plight was finally recognised in 1999 when child migrants took their case to court and the Australian Senate found the Christian Brothers guilty of failing in their duty of care.
Dr Cachia Zammit said, however, that decisions taken at the time were well-intentioned.
"There were children living in orphanages or in big families, barely subsisting, and this scheme was intended to give them an education and a better future in Australia - we never doubted it would do well at the time," he said.

Recalling his three-week trip to Australia in 1963 at the invitation of the government, he described how he had visited two institutions run by the Christian Brothers in Bindoon and Tardun.

There he met three boys he had encouraged to migrate when he was still a doctor working in Żejtun. He described how the three had tilled huge tracts of land they were given by the Australian government, and tended to sheep.
"They were over the moon and I believe they still are to this day. None of the children there had approached me to speak out. Neither had we received any complaints, otherwise we would have taken steps immediately," he said.

Dr Cachia Zammit recalled that the only thing he knew at the time was that the Christian Brothers director could not meet him as planned because of some police investigations.

"On my return to Malta, the Australian government informed us about its suspicions and we immediately took steps. It was agreed we should stop sending children - we wanted to protect them," he said.
While condemning the cause behind the victims' suffering, he questioned why it took some so long to speak out about the abuse they endured, and asked if a few could have possibly intended to "obscure the Church" with their allegations.
"True, these people suffered, but I feel some tried too hard to bash the Church - and in life there are limits," he said.

(report of Paul Calleja )