Whistleblowers say Catholic order MSC bullied them and shielded abuse-accused witness

Meta Jackman, the order's former director of professional standards, her support officer Anne-Marie Snelling, and former spiritual director Clare Shearman all accuse MSC province leader Father Stephen Hackett of bullying. Jackman and Snelling have filed workplace injury claims against the Sydney-based order, which runs four Australian schools, in the Federal Court. The women say things deteriorated once Hackett took charge and that they eventually could not be in the same room as him. Snelling says her psychologist and a rehabilitation specialist both judged the workplace too toxic for her to return.

Hackett declined to be interviewed and denies the bullying allegations. In a statement, MSC said it takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously and is committed to fostering a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace. The order said the women's claims were not substantiated in an investigation it commissioned. The Federal Court claims are continuing.

The women's warnings were not the first. An affidavit from Hackett's predecessor, Father Chris McPhee, says allegations were made by women he worked with when he was secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, and that a historical record existed on his file. In April, MSC priest Father Mark Hanns wrote to the whole order describing a pattern of damaging behavior and an explosive anger, and begging members not to re-elect Hackett. They ignored the plea and re-elected him in May.

Solicitor Ros Everett, a former president of the NSW Law Society, chaired the MSC board until she resigned in disgust at Hackett's management style. She says he did not believe outsiders should run child abuse investigations and told her the order followed canon law and religious vows rather than civil law. Kathleen McCormack, knighted by Pope Francis for her work on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, also quit over his stance. The leadership's behavior was reported to the Pope's representative in Australia, and nothing was done.

While all this played out, MSC was defending a historical abuse claim in Victoria's Supreme Court brought by a victim using the pseudonym Mr Clifford, who alleged abuse as a boy at Monivae College in Hamilton. The order put up Father Malcolm Fyfe, the former Monivae principal who first encouraged Hackett to join the priesthood, as its star witness. Fyfe told the court he had created a family environment and denied knowing one teacher was acting sexually inappropriately with students, and said he removed another who strapped students. MSC won, with the judge calling Fyfe impressive and credible, and solicitor Michael Magazanik says that evidence was a big part of why his client's claim failed.

The court was not told that MSC's Professional Standards office had been gathering files on Fyfe. Months before trial, another former Monivae student reported abuse allegations against him, an external investigator took his statement, the claims were substantiated and MSC apologised. Snelling says she told the order's lawyers Fyfe was under investigation. After the case was thrown out on appeal, MSC sued one of the women for allegedly leaking confidential information — leaving her with a $500,000 legal bill she cannot pay.