Posted on 03/26/2011 8:39:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Society of Jesus' Pacific Northwest unit and its insurers have agreed to pay a record $166.1 million to about 470 people who were sexually and psychologically abused as children by Jesuit priests from the 1940s to the 1990s, the victims' attorneys said Friday.
Blaine Tamaki, an attorney in Yakima, Washington, described the payment as "the largest settlement between a religious order and abuse victims in the history of the United States."
The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is now in federal bankruptcy court in Portland, Oregon, the attorneys said. Insurers will pay $118 million, and the Jesuits' Pacific Northwest province will pay $48.1 million, Tamaki said.
"The $166.1 million is the largest settlement by a religious order in the history of the world," Tamaki said. "Over 450 Native American children ... were sexually abused repeatedly, from rape to sodomy, for decades throughout the Northwest. Instead of teaching these children how to read and write, Jesuit priests were teaching them distrust and shame.
"Instead of teaching the Native American children the love of God, these Jesuit pedophile priests were molesting these young children," Tamaki told reporters.
The Rev. Patrick Lee, provincial superior of the Jesuits' Oregon Province, declined to comment on the settlement, citing in a written statement the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
"The province continues to work with the creditors committee to conclude the bankruptcy process as promptly as possible," Lee said.
Jesuits are the world's largest order of Catholic priests and are considered the most educated in the priesthood as they run prestigious universities, said Patrick Wall, a consultant to the victims' attorneys and a former priest and Benedictine monk who's now an expert on Catholic clergy abuse.
Jesuits number about 19,000 worldwide, according to the Society of Jesus in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
These are our tithes and offerings?
Wake me up when CNN can find Obama’s LONG form birth certificate!
Amazing. For every legitimate claims there are probably ten that are false. But when the legal sharks start swarming. The Jebbies deserve no better, but this is not their greatest sin.
Amazing. For every legitimate claims there are probably ten that are false. But when the legal sharks start swarming. The Jebbies deserve no better, but this is not their greatest sin.
470 people are now claiming they were screwed again because they did not understand the 1/3 contigent fee agreement.
This is what happens when faggots are allowed to be in positions of power over youngsters.
This is what happens when institutions go on auto-pilot. The sodomites should have been prevented from coming in, and any that made it past initial screenings should have been rooted out ruthlessly. But, no, no one from the Pope down wanted to enforce church discipline on “colleagues” or useful personnel, and no one wanted to do these things because of the “scandal” involved. No one wanted a so-called “witch-hunt”. Well, now the sodomites have given them their scandal many times over, profoundly harmed children, and have bankrupted their organizations.
Catholics need to become militant over how the church has been and probably continues to be negligent. There are more sodomites to be exposed and gotten rid of. The question is whether the men entrusted with the care of the Holy Church will do it.
This is what happens when sodomites are allowed in power anywhere.
Priests were assumed to be absolutely pure by most of us until the past 15 years or so. They were put in a position of trust, beyond reproach.
We parishioners were naive. No party is perfect, but we never would have suspected this behavior. Affairs with adults and even with each other would have been more understandable given social pressures, but not with children.
Lesson learned is to be suspicious of every authority figure and not place too much trust in them, and replace them often.
I wish you were right. I hope you are right.
Of course you have no way of knowing. Sadly it is possible all claims are correct.
I have said this for years....you didn't say anything at the time....didn't tell your parents, didn't punch him out, didn't tell the principal of the school, didn't tell your friends.....but someone files a suit, dollars involved, and suddenly you remember that you were molested..........yeah right, put me on the jury and the whiners would have to show DNA evidence. This whole situation is pathetic....are some of them justified....maybe, are most of them, nope, they are young homosexuals learning to enjoy their strange desires with a young priest who was also a homosexual.....duh
I have said this for years....you didn't say anything at the time....didn't tell your parents, didn't punch him out, didn't tell the principal of the school, didn't tell your friends.....but someone files a suit, dollars involved, and suddenly you remember that you were molested..........yeah right, put me on the jury and the whiners would have to show DNA evidence. This whole situation is pathetic....are some of them justified....maybe, are most of them, nope, they are young homosexuals learning to enjoy their strange desires with a young priest who was also a homosexual.....duh
Now as any former student of any Roman Catholic Religious Order can attest, there has always been a dark shadow flitting through the shadows of the cloisters. In tragically feeble defense, I offer the common knowledge that in the subjects of buggery and paedophilia, the Romans pale in comparison with the Anglicans, and that both are amateurs in the field when it comes to the various branches of the Orthodox.
Nor can the leaders of the various American Churches of St. Billy Bob of the Trailer Park slink innocently away. By golly even a rabbi or two has been led away in the iron bracelets. As far as the Muslims go, which should be very far from here indeed, buggery, paedophilia, bestiality, and even vegetality are enshrined in their holy writings.
Conclusion: Carnality and Religion are inextricably entwined in the Genetic Code of the Human Species. Watch the people with the prayerbooks like hawks is the lesson. A number of them are always going to be watching our children in the same way.
I recall the wave of claims in the early 90s about suppressed memories of sexual abuse by fathers, and nursery workers stood accused of molestation as prosecutor prodded 5-year olds to offer up testimony. It is not that these things don’t happen: there here were “witches” during the Middle Ages, there are monsters exposed every day. But as the numbers multiple, the suspicions grows that people are getting revenge for abuses that have nothing to do with the charges, or just enjoying power. Don’t forget the Salem Witch Trials. It was not the accused who were possessed.
The “victim asked for it” defense?
Well, sexuality is in the blood —a much more poetic and (Ithink) truthful term than “genetric code.” In the Bible blood is life, and it is tainted by sin, and has since Adam. Blood much be touched by divinity to be purified. That even the pagans realized as they offered their blood sacrifices. A child’s blood is what passes as most pure, and a lamb is the closest analogy to a human child. Christians, however, believe that we can be cleansed by faith, which is that grace that pours from the wounds of the divine victim. How pitiful is the priest or any other man, who looks upon youth as something desperately to be recaptured. Men seek out ever younger prostitutes, violate virgins so as to appropriate that for themselves, as by some form of sacrificing them in hopes of some expiation.
I didn't read his statement as that as all. I don't wish to put words in his mouth, but I think he's pointing out that in some cases, decades have gone by, and because so much time has passed, there's absolutely no way to defend yourself from such a claim.
For most of America's history, there were statutes of limitations on these kinds of intentional torts - anywhere from 2-8 years in most states. Then, when these allegations of clergy misconduct started to spring up in the '80s, the states - under incredible and coersive influence from the plaintiff's attorney's lobby - started to change the laws specifically to address these cases. IOW, they wrote legislation that allowed lawyers to do what had never been available before.
As a result, there are literally lawyers flying in their own private jets, all from these settlements.
And, before anyone says it - no, I'm not defending the heinous and despicable actions of some clergy members, and the institutional protection the Church gave to these predators. But, to pretend that there wasn't fraud involved in some, perhaps many of these cases, is fanciful.
I should add so as not to mislead people, some of these changes occurred legislatively, but case law also played a roll as well. There were dozens of precedents that expanded what had been long-standing principles of law that previously limited or foreclosed entirely, these kinds of cases after after a more traditional period of time had passed.
I can’t read it in any other way... “the plaintiff [never mind if he was under age of consent] liked it”
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