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	Catholic Order Based in Santa Rosa Named in Montana Abuse Lawsuit By Martin Espinoza Press Democrat November 12, 2011 http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20111111/ARTICLES/111119878 The Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, a Catholic order whose headquarters is in Santa Rosa, are facing a lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse more than 40 years ago at their former school in Montana. The lawsuit does not involve Santa Rosa's three Ursuline nuns, who last year closed the all-girls Ursuline High School and who plan to rent their campus as a public charter school for underprivileged students next year. Nor does it involve abuse allegations in California. The Santa Rosa-based Western Province had supervisorial authority over the Montana school where victims say much of the abuse occurred, according to the lawsuit. The school closed in the early 1970s. The legal complaint, filed in late September and amended last week, alleges that nuns and sisters at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius, Montana, and priests of the Diocese of Helena in Montana sexually, physically and emotionally abused at least 59 victims over the course of several decades, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Sister Christine van Swearingen, one of the three local Ursuline nuns, said she could not comment on the allegations being made in Montana because of the pending litigation. The alleged sexual abuse involved mostly Native American boys and girls who were either boarding students or day students at the academy in St. Ignatius, where both Ursuline nuns and diocesan priests worked, according to the victims' attorney. Vito de la Cruz, an attorney with Tamaki Law Offices of Washington, which is representing the alleged victims, said that the Diocese of Helena was ultimately responsible for what happened to the children that were under its care. De la Cruz's law firm recently won a $167.8 million settlement against the Jesuit order in Oregon on behalf of hundreds of alleged victims of sex abuse. In July, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Portland approved a Chapter 11 reorganization for the Jesuit province in Portland, a move that set the stage for the settlement, the bulk of which will come from insurers of the religious order. Van Swearingen declined to say whether the Ursulines have insurance or whether the suit will have any impact on plans to lease portions of the Ursuline campus to the Roseland School District for a public charter school. After closing the 130-year-old girls school last May because of declining enrollment, the Ursuline sisters announced in September that they intended to rent the campus to Roseland. The property that housed the former Ursuline High School is owned by the Ursuline order's Western Province. “It is quite premature to speculate as to whether the pending litigation would impact the Ursuline Province as landlord,” said John Christian, an attorney with Tobin & Tobin who is representing the order's Western Province in the law suit. Christian would not comment on the allegations in Montana, which include sodomy, oral sex, fondling and intercourse. He said many of the nuns and priests named as defendants in the lawsuit are dead and have no way of defending their “good names.” The Western Province, which was incorporated in California in 1901, is headed by provincial leaders Sister Shirley Garibaldi of San Francisco, and Sister Margaret Johnson of Moscow, Idaho. The province covers an area that includes Montana, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California. In addition to van Swearingen, Sister Dianne Baumunk and Sister Joanne Abrams are based in Santa Rosa. Roseland School District Superintendent Gail Ahlas said she only recently learned of the lawsuits involving the Ursuline Academy in Montana. She said local plans to launch the new school next year are unchanged. “We are full steam ahead. We're putting all of our energy and enthusiasm into moving forward with our first year of seventh-graders,” Ahlas said. “We have lots to do.”
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