On Her Three Jesuit Abusers, “The Point Wasn’t Money; It Was To Bring The Issue To The Public. I Feel Like I Got Justice, And I Got The Word Out And Hopefully That Will Prevent Something Like This From Going On In The Future.”

Fr. Poole, S.J.in 1978, is named one of Alaska's hippest DJs by People magazine.

Two lawsuits brought against the Catholic Diocese of Yakima for alleged sexual abuse by clergy members are in the process of being settled.

A settlement agreement has been signed in the case of Michelle Duerre, who said she was sexually abused by three Jesuit priests during the 1970s.

The diocese has agreed to pay her $40,000. She alleged that the Revs. Frank Duffy, John Morse and James Poole abused her when she was between the ages of 8 and 12 and a student at St. Joseph/Marquette Catholic School. Duerre said that Morse and Duffy abused her at the school and in the church rectory and that Poole abused her at the St. Peter the Apostle retreat house in Cowiche. She filed the suit in Yakima County Superior Court last March. Now 45, Duerre lives in King County and asked that her name be made public in her suit against the diocese. Reached by telephone Wednesday, Duerre said she decided not to go to trial because “the point wasn’t money; it was to bring the issue to the public. I feel like I got justice, and I got the word out and hopefully that will prevent something like this from going on in the future.” Now deceased, Duffy served at St. Joseph Catholic Church from 1971 to 1979 and in other parishes in the diocese until 1989. Morse worked at St. Joseph’s from 1963 to 1966, 1973 to 1979 and again in 1994. Poole was never assigned here, but may have been a visiting priest.

Duffy was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a plaintiff identified as M.P. in Superior Court in 2010. The plaintiff claimed she was molested in 1977 while a student at St. Joseph/Marquette. The case was settled in 2012 for $205,000.

Morse had not been named previously in a lawsuit against the diocese, but he was part of a $166 million settlement in 2011 the Jesuit Oregon Province agreed to pay to more than 100 victims who said they were abused in schools in the Pacific Northwest decades ago by Jesuits. Morse has denied those allegations. Newsweek magazine reported in 2008 that Poole had been accused of sexual abuse in Alaska. Both Morse and Poole live in a retirement facility in Spokane.

Link (here) to The Yakima Herald

Jesuit University Purchases Jesuit Residence From Jesuit Province

The province declared bankruptcy nearly three years ago, around the time that the group agreed to pay $166.1 million to about 500 people abused by Jesuit priests at schools in the Pacific Northwest. It was one of the Catholic Church’s biggest sex-abuse settlements. At the time, the National Catholic Reporter reported that the province would pay $48.1 million and that the order’s insurer would pay the rest.

On Jan. 16, Seattle University paid the Jesuits $2.2 million for the Arrupe Jesuit Community Building, which is on campus at 924 E. Cherry St. SU had previously owned the land but not the building, which serves as a home to Jesuits.

The purchase will help Seattle University, a Jesuit-run institution, ensure the continued presence of “a vibrant Jesuit community on our campus and is consistent with the relationship between other Jesuit universities and their Jesuits,” SU spokeswoman Stacy Howard said in a statement. Pat Walsh, the spokesman for the Oregon province of the Society of Jesus, said the sale is unrelated to the sexual-abuse settlement. The bankruptcy was over with several years ago, and the people who had claims against the province have been paid, he said. Money from the sale of the building will go into the province’s budget and could be used to fund the care of elderly priests, Walsh said, adding that Jesuits have been selling residence halls to Jesuit educational institutions.

Link (here) to Bizjournals

The Bankruptcy filling (here) of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus on  02/17/09 as a result of the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal with in the province by 50 or so Jesuits (here).

Jesuit Property Up For Auction

One of the most pristine, scenic and unique properties in Tillamook County is on the auction block. Nestucca Sanctuary, a former Jesuit retreat facility near Pacific City will be auctioned through Realty Marketing/Northwest December 5. Opening bids start at $1,295,000. This is the first time the property has been on the market since it was developed by the Jesuits 73 years ago. The former Jesuit retreat facility with lodge and dormitory is located on a forested 93-acre parcel, the northernmost headland in the Nestucca Bay, overlooking the bay to the east, Pacific City to the north and the ocean to the west. It includes over a mile of shoreline. The property was developed in 1938-1939 by the Jesuits as a summer retreat location, in order to serve the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Francis Xavier, located in Sheridan, Oregon.
Link (here) to Tillamook Headlight Herald

Diocese Of Yakima Pays 205K In Case Involving Jesuit

The Catholic Diocese of Yakima agreed last month to pay $205,000 to a woman who sued over sexual abuse she said took place at the hands of a Jesuit priest in the 1970s. 

The woman, identified as M.P. in the suit filed in April 2010 in Yakima County Superior Court, settled last year with the Jesuits for $288,000. Both suits stem from abuse she said occurred in 1977 when she was 8 years old at St. Joseph’s Parish, which was run by the Jesuits until last summer. The priest in question, Fr. Francis Duffy, S.J., had been accused of molesting girls in Oregon before he was transferred to Yakima, where he served until 1989. He died in 1992.

The woman’s lawyer, Bryan Smith of Tamaki Law Offices in Yakima, hailed the settlement as an overdue acknowledgment of responsibility. Previously, he said, the diocese had placed all of the blame for Duffy’s abuse on the Jesuits. "The Yakima Diocese had not acknowledged any type of responsibility for Father Duffy despite the fact he preached in this town under their supervision for 20 years," Smith said. The Rev. Robert Siler, diocese chief of staff, characterized the settlement differently. The diocese needs "to prudently protect its legal rights" and taking the matter to court could have proved costly. But the diocese was unaware Duffy had abused anyone when he came to Yakima, Siler said. "We simply did not know," he said. 

The settlement, he noted, does not mean the diocese has accepted legal responsibility."Consistently, the Jesuits have always accepted responsibility for assigning and supervising the priests they’ve had come to Yakima," Siler said. The lawsuit acknowledged that the diocese may not have known, but still asserted that it bore responsibility. "We never got a jury determination on that," Smith said. "It’s our position that they knew or should have known. ... There is a long history of the diocese knowing about abuse committed within its jurisdiction and borders and doing nothing about it." 

Over the past decade, the diocese has confirmed the names of more than a dozen clergymen who have served in the diocese and who have been publicly accused of sexual abuse. And, though the diocese did not accept legal liability in this settlement, Bishop Joseph Tyson wrote a letter of apology to the woman and has offered to meet with her for discussion and counsel, Siler said. "We’re very sorry for any abuse the victim has suffered, particularly any abuse at the hand of Father Duffy," he said. But that language, "any abuse," falls short of the true mea culpa Smith said he would like to see from the diocese. Still, despite the diocese not taking legal responsibility, his client is relieved with the outcome, he said. "Any time the church pays money to settle a case, it’s an acknowledgment of wrongdoing," Smith said. "That’s how I view it."

Link (here) to The Yakima Herald

Seattle University Is Not Controlled By The Oregon Province

Seattle University won't be financially liable for lawsuits filed against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesuits, said President Stephen Sundborg, S.J., in his State of the University address. In January of 2009, a lawsuit was filed against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesuits for sexual abuse against Alaskan Native children. Sundborg was named as a defendant in the case, which sparked concerns as to whether Seattle U's assets were safe. Back in 2009, when legal charges caused the Oregon Province to file for bankruptcy, Sundborg included the following statement in an email to students, faculty and staff: "I want to assure you that Seattle University is not part of this bankruptcy proceeding. Seattle University is, and has been for more than 100 years, an independent Washington non-profit corporation. Seattle University is not owned, operated or controlled by the Oregon Province."

Link (here)

Jesuit High Schools In The Oregon Province Say They Are Not A Part Of Oregon Province

Later this summer, insurers for the Oregon Province will send payments to the trust of nearly $120 million, according to attorneys for the parties.

A last-minute objection to the bankruptcy plan by a lawyer for four high schools -- Beaverton's Jesuit High, Tacoma's Bellarmine Preparatory, Spokane's Gonzaga Preparatory and Seattle Preparatory -- nearly put a halt to today's long-awaited conclusion to the bankruptcy plan.

A lawyer for the schools wanted an agreement written into the plan that would release them from any legal claim that they were part of the Oregon Province. The province and the committee of creditors appointed in the case had recently reached such an agreement with Seattle University. However, the creditors committee argued against the high schools getting the same deal.

Lawyers huddled privately during a break in today's proceedings to reach a compromise: the settlement trust was given a deadline of up to nine months to commence any litigation against the high schools. The trust would also be required to file one lawsuit, and it would be limited to a pair of Portland venues: U.S. District Court or U.S. Bankruptcy Court. 

Link (here) to Oregon Live to read the full story.

"I Don't Go To Church No More,"

St. Ignatius Mission Church in St. Ignatius, Montana

"It took me 40 years to separate the Catholic religion and belief in God," said Garry "Bob" Salois, who despite his palpable anger took off his cap when he entered St. Ignatius church. "I believe there's got to be a creator of all things. But if Jesus Christ and his bunch are a true religion, he's forsaken me a long time ago." Leland "Jimi" Hewankorn has worked to reclaim his tribal heritage, turning to traditional ways. "I don't go to church no more," he said. "I confess to Him only. I don't confess to a human being."

The men said they're waiting for something more valuable than money. "I got over being angry," Burke said. "But I want an apology. Not for myself, but the whole Indian race." Salois hopes the Rev. Patrick Lee, the leader of the Oregon Province, comes to St. Ignatius to apologize in person - although at the thought, his anger flashed anew. "I'd tell him, I don't accept your apologies. It's too damn late," he said. 

But a moment later, he added, "I'd go and see what kind of apology he gives. If it's a real one, I'll accept it. But if it's one of their old phonies, I'll spit in his face and go away." And Hewankorn wants to ask the old, unanswerable question. "Why? Why did you do that to us?"

Link (here) to the full Missoulian article.

Leander Lee James On Jesuit Reverse Evangalization

Leander Lee James

"I'm just a little attorney in a small town. I had no idea I'd be swept into a case of this magnitude." James no longer considers himself Catholic – a change he says was already underway, but which the Jesuit case solidified. He says he still has faith though. To James, one of the most troubling parts of the case is that many of his clients – don't. 

"I have clients time and again tell me the same thing in the exact same words. 'I can't have faith anymore. I can't believe anymore.; And it's because they were taught this sense of belief in this man. And then he violates them. It eviscerates that belief, so they can't believe anymore. It's profoundly sad." 

James says he'll probably use some of the fees he'll get from the settlement to fix up his house – maybe repair some of the deer fences he's neglected. He also got a call not too long ago from the alumni office of Santa Clara University, his Jesuit alma mater. James says he'll probably give them a little money too.

Link (here) to KOUW to read the full story.

Inside The Oregon Deal

Michael Pfau

The settlement of more than 500 individual claims, the result of over a year of negotiations, is believed to be the single-largest clergy sex-abuse bankruptcy settlement in the United States. It is also the first bankruptcy among the 10 Jesuit provinces nationwide. While a number of Catholic Dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, including the Spokane Diocese, the Jesuits are the first religious order to seek bankruptcy protection. The Oregon Province covers Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Alaska. Seattle sexual abuse attorney Michael Pfau, who represents 150 of the victims and played a role in brokering the settlement, said the money for victims, while significant, is secondary in importance to exposing wrongs and forcing change. “It took courage for the men and women we represent to come forward, tell their story and challenge such a powerful institution,” Pfau said. Although Pfau has represented hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse, he believes the bankruptcy will shed further light on what he perceives as a problem of institutional neglect. “Our clients and their communities deserve answers and deserve closure and this settlement is a big step toward accomplishing those goals,” Pfau said. A steering committee of seven victims and their attorneys began negotiating with the Jesuits several months ago. The same committee will recommend to all claimants that the offer be accepted. Under the terms of the proposed settlement agreement, approximately 70 percent of the payout will come from insurance assets. The remaining 30 percent will be paid directly by the Oregon Province.

Link (here) to read the full article at Othello Outlook

Distributing The 166 Million Dollars

Native Americans who reported s@xual abuse at Jesuit-run schools are telling their stories to court-appointed reviewers as part of an effort to determine how to distribute a $166.1 million settlement reached last month with an order of Jesuit priests. Some of the interviews happened in Great Falls last week, while others have taken place in Missoula and Polson. "It's hard. These are very difficult stories," attorney Andrew Chasan of Boise, Idaho, told the Great Falls Tribune for a story published April 28. "This may be only the second or third time they've told this story in their lives." The settlement money will be distributed among more than 450 claimants based on the severity of the abuse they suffered and other factors, he said.

Link (here) to the full AP story

Fairbanks Bishop Listening To The Victims Of Jesuit Priest Abuse

Bishop Donald Kettler

Bishop Donald Kettler, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks, sat in a tiny meeting room in the Yup’ik village of St. Michael.  

“I’ve come this evening just to, to hear what you’d like to tell me, or what you’d like to say to me,” said Kettler, who oversees a northern and western Alaska diocese more than three times the size of Italy. A grey V-neck sweater framed his priest’s collar and soft features.  

“If there’s something that you’d like to tell me, please, uh, you know. Do that.” About 10 villagers stared back at the Bishop in silence. A man and woman sat holding hands next to a window. Someone had closed the blinds. Finally, a middle-aged man named Ben Andrews spoke. 

“Joseph Lundowski. Father Endal …” he began, naming the men who sexually abused him and a generation of other St. Michael children on an almost daily basis. “I wish that those who victimized me, I wish they was here, too,” said Andrews, 

who says his father once beat him for saying he’d been raped by a priest. Andrews clasped his hands together on the wooden table, then put his palms to his head as Kettler apologized on behalf of the church.

Link (here) to the great blog post at Laitytude

An Excerpt From PBS Television News Show Frontline Entitled "The Silence" Documenting A Small Portion Of The Jesuit Alaskan Fiasco

One man, Ben Andrews, recounts that when he told his father what the priest had done, his father grabbed his belt, "… and he hung me upside down. He beat me and told me never to talk about priests like that. My dad went out. He came back pretty drunk and I saw him holding a pistol in his hand. He looked at my mom, and pointed the gun at her. The gun went off and my brother was in the front. The bullet pierced both of them. I held him in my arm. My brother didn't have to die just because I told my dad the truth."

Link (here) to read the full piece at the ultra-liberal NCR

The Issue Is H@mosexuality, Not Ped@philia

...in a lengthy letter from the Catholic League president Bill Donohue argued, talking about priests:  “There is no other group in the U.S. which is subjected to such abuse.” “What accounts for the relentless attacks on the Church?  Lets face it.  If its teachings were pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and pro-women clergy, the dogs would have been called off years ago,” Donohue wrote. 

The letter contrasts with recent expressions of repentance heard in the Seattle Archdiocese. A recent commentary at Seattle’s Jesuit-run St. Joseph Church talked of “a communal responsibility, a responsibility too often avoided in our culture and in our church.” The commentary followed a recent $166 million settlement between Northwest Jesuits and plaintiffs, mainly Native Americans, who claimed abuse at schools in Washington and Alaska.  

It spoke of “repentant listening that is needed in the church.” “Where would we all be, for instance, had not many voices, including those of victims and of people in the pews, spoken up and told the awful truth about clergy sexual abuse and the way the Church handled it, when speaking up was regarded by many as an act of disloyalty,” Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, said in a recent homily. Donohue, by contrast, charged that “some are exploiting this issue for ideological and financial profit.” 

He also took issue with allegations of widespread child rape from victims and their advocates. “Lets get it straight — they weren’t children and they weren’t raped,” Donohue alleged.  “We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though this is, it is not rape).

“The Boston Globe correctly said of the John Jay report that ‘more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.’

“In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia.”
Link (here) to Seattle PI


The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination.

Link (here) the Catholic Leagues website.

Number Three

The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus recent settlement is believed to be the Catholic Church’s third-largest in the sex abuse cases, behind the Los Angeles Diocese, which agreed to pay $660 million to 508 victims, and the San Diego Diocese, which agreed to pay $198 million to 144 victims............
 Link (here) to to read the full article at News from Indian Country.

As Peers Of A Jesuit Institution

Fr. Patrick Howell, S.J.

In a campus-wide email sent Mar. 25, Seattle University stated "the university and the Oregon Province are legally and financially separate and independent entities." The case has stirred up a great deal of controversy across campus with students and staff. In a separate message sent to students from Fr. Patrick Howell, S.J. on Mar. 28, Howell encouraged students to pray for the abused and their families. As peers of a Jesuit institution, Howell stated, we must not "lose sight of the victims" and continue to focus on reconciliation and the protection of children. 

"We need to focus not so much on Jesuits and what's happening to Seattle U, but the victims and care for victims and how we're going to address that in the future," Howell said. "We need to focus on how we're going to keep children protected." 

According to the university's official statement, Seattle U was in no way involved with the abuse happening under the Oregon Province, but does cite a handful of claims against two former Jesuits at Seattle U, both of whom are now deceased.
Link (here) to read the full article.

Bankruptcy, Indians, Safeco, Apology, Victims, Priests And Thanking Victims

A 90-page plan filed Monday night in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland, Ore., also spells out how the  Oregon Jesuits will apologize to mostly Native American and Alaska Native victims abused at Jesuit schools in Alaska and the Northwest. 

The Oregonian says the plan shows Safeco Insurance Co. will pay $118 million and the region's Jesuits will contribute $43.1 million, with nearly $6.5 million set aside for future claims. The payout also specifies legal fees. 

The plan says the area's top Jesuit leader will send apology letters to victims. The Portland-based Jesuit province will also post a website link to the names of its priests who were identified as abusers. And a Jesuit statement thanking victims who spoke up will be published as a retail ad in newspapers from Montana to Alaska.

.

Link (here) to the full article at The Seattle Times

Lefty National Catholic Reporter Unloads On The Jesuits "Oregon Problem"

Thank God. That’s all I can say about the news that the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus will be paying $166.1 million to hundreds of now-adults who were abused as children by various Jesuit priests. I can’t say “Thank the Jesuits,” because, like their diocesan colleagues before them, the Jebbies fought paying this settlement and fought admitting that anyone in their ranks had done the reprehensible. I don’t know what the problem is with clerics admitting fault, but we sure seem to have an institutional problem with that. I actually heard a Jesuit a few months ago say he was concerned about his provinces finances because “of the Oregon problem.” That “problem” would be the crime of sexual abuse of minors, but you know how it is with the English language -- so many words can stand for the same thing, right?

Link (here) to the frank editorial by Renée Schafer Horton at The National Catholic Reporter

Jesuits Pay Out A Quarter Of A Billion Dollars For Oregon Province Legal Settlements

The payout, "one of the largest … in the Roman Catholic Church's sex-abuse crisis, and the largest by a religious order," came in the form of a bankruptcy settlement and was believed to be approximately $166.1 million, according to the Seattle Times. Insurance companies would provide about $118 million and the Jesuits would contribute $48.1 million. The Oregon province of the Rome-based Jesuit order covers Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, according to Reuters, which reported that most victims were Alaska Natives or Native Americans. The victims were "sexually or psychologically abused as children by Jesuit missionaries in those states in the 1940s through the 1990s," according to the plaintiffs' attorneys. About 57 priests had been identified and removed, and 700 victims compensated nearly $250 million, including this week's settlement,

Link (here) to the full story at Alaska Dispatch

450 Victims Divided By $166,100,000.00 Equals $370,000.00 Per Victim

 A Yakima law firm takes on the largest religious order settlement in history; resulting in Northwest Jesuits to pay $166.1 million to abuse victims. The settlement involves approximately 450 victims who were sexually abused as children by Jesuit Missionaries in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Oregon between the 1940's and 1990's. This is the largest settlement between a religious order and sexual abuse victims in the history of the United States, paying $166.1 million. The settlement will also require the Jesuits to provide a written apology to the victims, and produce documents regarding their knowledge of the abuse that took place on their watch. Attorney Bryan Smith with Tamaki Law described the settlement Friday against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, based in Portland, OR. The majority of the abuse took place in Jesuit operated mission schools, boarding schools, and on Indian reservations in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Some Jesuits abused children while stationed in dioceses throughout the Northwest.

Link (here) to read the rest of the story at KNDO

Read about the 40 Jesuits implicated in the lawsuit (here).