The New South Wales Supreme Court has put a temporary stop to all civil lawsuits against the Christian Brothers. This pause is intended to allow the court to review a proposed plan for paying back creditors.

新南威爾斯州最高法院已暫時停止所有針對基督兄弟會的民事訴訟。此次暫停旨在讓法院審查一項擬定的債權人還款計劃。

Justice Scott Nixon granted this pause after reports showed that the Trustees of the Christian Brothers are close to bankruptcy. Their lawyers emphasized a serious lack of cash, stating that they only have $23 million in reserves while spending about $1.7 million per week on survivor payments. Currently, the organization owes an estimated $774 million to claimants, but its remaining assets are only worth $216 million. Consequently, the order has proposed a restructuring process to sell its remaining assets and distribute the money fairly among creditors. If the court and creditors do not approve this plan, the organization may have to enter formal liquidation.

Scott Nixon 法官在報告顯示基督兄弟會信託人接近破產後，批准了此次暫停。他們的律師強調目前嚴重缺乏現金，表示目前僅有 2,300 萬美元儲備，而每週支付給倖存者的賠償金約 170 萬美元。目前，該組織估計欠債權人 7.74 億美元，但剩餘資產僅價值 2.16 億美元。因此，該命令建議進行重組程序，出售剩餘資產並將款項公平地分配給債權人。如果法院和債權人不批准此計劃，該組織可能必須進入正式清算程序。

At the same time, the Commonwealth government has raised serious concerns about how the organization handled its assets in the past. Evidence shows that the Christian Brothers transferred expensive real estate, including several schools, to Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) for only $1 per property. The Commonwealth described these transfers as worrying, suggesting that this may have been a strategic move to protect assets from legal claims. Although EREA was created in 2007 and has assets worth about $2.6 billion, it has refused to provide financial help to the Christian Brothers. Therefore, lawyers for the survivors plan to ask the court to name EREA as the primary defendant to ensure there is enough money for compensation.

與此同時，聯邦政府對該組織過去處理資產的方式表示嚴重關注。證據顯示，基督兄弟會將包括數所學校在內的昂貴房產，以每件 1 美元的價格轉讓給 Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA)。聯邦政府形容這些轉讓令人擔憂，暗示這可能是為了保護資產免受法律追索的策略性舉措。雖然 EREA 成立於 2007 年且資產價值約 26 億美元，但它拒絕向基督兄弟會提供財務援助。因此，倖存者的律師計劃要求法院將 EREA 列為主被告，以確保有足夠的賠償金。

The legal pause will remain in place until a hearing on September 21, which will decide how the creditor payment plan will operate.

法律暫停將維持至 9 月 21 日的聆訊，屆時將決定債權人還款計劃如何執行。