BishopAccountability.org
	Jesuits Will Pay Abuse Settlement, Lawyers Say Priests: Alaska Native Abuse Settlement Said to Be $50 Million By Beth Bragg Anchorage Daily News November 19, 2007 http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/9465364p-9376717c.html A settlement of $50 million will be paid to 110 Alaska Natives who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests who preyed on children in rural Alaska, lawyers representing the plaintiffs said Sunday. Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa said the settlement is the largest against a single religious order since stories of clerical abuse began to emerge around the country several years ago. The provincial of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus -- also known as the Jesuits -- called the announcement of an agreement in the civil case premature. "It is my understanding that there are still many issues that need to be finalized before it is appropriate to make an official announcement," the Very Rev. John D. Whitney, provincial for the order, said in a written statement. In response, Roosa produced an e-mail he received Friday in which a lawyer for the Jesuits confirmed that a $50 million agreement had been reached. Then he blasted Sunday's written statement from Whitney, who didn't say what issues remained to be settled and didn't straightforwardly deny an announcement had been reached. "They're not honest about child rape," Roosa said, "so how can you expect them to be honest about contractual dealings?" The deal was agreed upon orally by both sides almost three weeks ago, he said. On Friday, attorney Dick Hansen wrote to Roosa on behalf of the Jesuits, saying "this email will confirm that a settlement has been reached ... (that) calls for $50,000,000 to be paid to the plaintiffs." At one point in the e-mail, Hansen wrote, "I am glad we can put this matter to rest." Roosa said the agreement includes no admission of guilt and no apology from the Jesuits, whose priests and volunteers were accused of offenses ranging from years of rape to attempted touching. Claims dating from the early 1960s to the late 1980s were made against 13 priests and two clerics. Most of the claims came from Native men who were children in Western Alaska and Yukon River villages during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when a Catholic priest ranked among the most important figures in town. "He was the most powerful person in the village, no doubt," Roosa said. "In many cases they were the most educated person in the village. They were often the only one who could understand English. They served as translator, as go-between with the government, they married, they buried, they baptized, they forgave sins, they condemned to hell, they resolved disputes." In short, he said, priests were the voice of white authority. Villagers who say they were abused "didn't have any voice," he said. "These are people who spent their life believing they were at fault because they caused a holy man to do something wrong," Roosa said. Among the accused is James Poole, a priest who founded KNOM radio station in Nome and is accused of abusing young girls in Nome, Barrow and smaller villages. He has been accused of raping girls as young as 6 and impregnating at least one teenager. Joseph Lundowski, a Trappist monk and Catholic volunteer, was accused of sexually abusing 39 boys and young men from 1960 to 1975. Twenty-eight of them were from St. Michael or Stebbins. Though bigger settlements have been reached between dioceses and plaintiffs -- the Archdiocese of Los Angeles this summer agreed to pay $660 million to 508 plaintiffs who claimed abuse by clergy -- Roosa said this is the biggest settlement against a single religious order. The Oregon Province runs Jesuit ministries in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. In April 2005, an Anchorage woman who accused Poole of abusing her as a child was awarded $500,000. At the time, Whitney called the payout one of the order's largest ever, surpassed only by one of $700,000. The woman, who grew up in Nome and said she was abused over a nine-year span, received another $500,000 from the Diocese of Fairbanks. Roosa said that diocese -- which owned and managed the village churches where the Jesuits were assigned -- faces 135 claims, many by the same plaintiffs who sued the Jesuits. Ten of those 135 claims will go to trial as test cases if no settlement can be reached, he said. As for the settlement with the Jesuits, it resolves the claims by 110 Alaskans, but it doesn't protect the order if new accusers come forward. "This doesn't give the Jesuits a pass on additional claims," Roosa said. Contact: bbragg@adn.com or call 257-4309.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.