Ex-students of Marist College Canberra have praised a decision to rename a student house honouring a senior official who helped protect a paedophile brother and shuffle him to another school.
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Abuse victim Damian De Marco and Marist old boy Mike Desmond have urged the school to continue on a path of healing the horrors of the school's past.
Earlier this week, Marist announced it would be changing the name of Othmar House, a student house that honours Brother Othmar Weldon, who was the high-ranking chair of Marist Brothers provincial council in the 1960s and 1970s.
Brother Weldon was strongly criticised in the child abuse royal commission last year, for helping to protect paedophile Brother John William Chute, known as Brother Kostka.
A child had made a complaint about being abused by Brother Kostka, and the brother admitted to touching the boy.
Brother Weldon simply gave Brother Kostka a canonical warning, and moved him to another school, where he was promoted to principal. Brother Kostka would go on to abuse many more boys, and the royal commission slammed Marist Brothers for continuing to enable his access to children.
Marist was approached to change Othmar House, and began a consultation process last month, which resulted in overwhelming support for the name's removal.
Principal Richard Sidorko announced the school would drop the name on Tuesday in a letter to the families, students, and teachers.
Mr De Marco, a victim of Brother Kostka's, said the move was a positive step forward in the ongoing process of healing and change needed at the school.
He said a lot of those harmed by abuse at Marist would find solace from Marist's reaching out.
"It's very good they've done it," he said.
"There's a lot of people out there who want to see things that show that they care."
Mr Desmond, who has campaigned for the name change, said it was the right move, but described it as a "first step".
He argued that Marist should never have put the "no change" option on the table during consultation.
"I think the issue was so obvious it still begs the question why was the no option even put on the table in the first place," he said.
"I've spoken to many people ... and no one ever thought it should even be an option."
Marist received 900 submissions on the issue during the short consultation period earlier this month.
Roughly 90 per cent of those were in support of changing Othmar House.
It will now be called the Lavalla House, after La Valla in France, the birthplace of Marist schools.
"Given the findings of the royal commission, it is irreconcilable that as a school we can attest to stand in solidarity with innocent victims of abuse whilst continuing to honour Brother Othmar through the naming of a house," Mr Sidorko wrote when advising the school community of the decision.
Mr De Marco and Mr Desmond say the Marist Brothers organisation as a whole, and the broader Catholic Church, must address the root causes that led to widespread abuse, and the systematic cover-up that followed.
Mr Desmond said the school should also re-examine placing a memorial to abuse victims, as proposed by victim and former student Nicholas Quaine several years ago.
