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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Christopher Knaus and Nino Bucci

‘Annihilating for survivors’: the Catholic church and its plaques to abuse perpetrators

church cross silhouette
The Catholic church has faced many requests in Australia to remove plaques to perpetrators of child sexual abuse and those who were seen to protect them. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

For the past 10 years, on the grounds of one of Canberra’s most prominent Catholic schools, a small plaque has paid tribute to the service of a man named Brother Jerome Hickman. Under the school sigil of Marist College Canberra, the plaque commemorates the work of the late Hickman, honouring him along what is known as “the Brothers Way”, a walk of appreciation for past clergy and staff.

The plaque, quietly removed in recent weeks, gave no hint of his darker past.

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