This morning, 43 Alaskan Natives filed a lawsuit against the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), claiming a widespread conspiracy to dump pedophile priests in small Alaskan towns and shelter them from exposure.
The suit was filed in the Bethel, Alaska Superior Court.
Reverend Father Stephen Sundborg—current president of Seattle University and head of the Northwest Jesuits from 1990 to 1996—is named as a co-conspirator.
Attorney Ken Roosa announced the lawsuit at a chilly press conference outside Seattle University this morning and said, as of today, he knows of 345 cases of molestation, only two of them against non-natives.
The Jesuits, he said, sent known pedophiles to isolated Alaskan villages—many of them only accessible by boat or plane—to let them abuse children with impunity.
“It was a pedophile’s paradise,” Roosa said. “We are going to shine some light on a dark and dirty corner of the Jesuit order.”
Today, Roosa said, there are 17,000 Catholics in the diocese of Fairbanks—which filed for chapter 11 last year—and were even fewer during the peak of the abuse, from 1960 to 1975.
The rate of child molestation by priests in Alaska, he said, “is several orders of magnitude larger” than anywhere else in the United States. (Roosa compared this lawsuit to one in Los Angeles, with 550 cases of abuse and a Catholic population of 3.5 million.)
The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in order to pay off settlements with Native Alaskans who were molested as children. (Roosa led that effort was well. This suit—against the Society of Jesus as a whole—is the latest battle in a long campaign Roosa has been waging against the opaque, secretive way the church responds to accusations of sexual abuse.)
Some members of the lawsuit spoke at the press conference, including Flo Kenny, a short woman with a steely gray ponytail and sunglasses.
“I am Flo Kenny,” she said slowly. “I am 74 years old. And I’ve kept silent for 60 years. I am here for all the ones who cannot speak—who are dead, who committed suicide, who are homeless, are drug addicts. There’s always been a time, an end of secrets. This is the time.”
She said her abuse started when she was 13 and depressed by the treatment she and other village children suffered from the nuns. “They managed us like wild ponies and beat us every day,” she said. “They said it was good for our character.”
She sought comfort from the village priest who began an abusive relationship that lasted several y ears. “The priest at that time took the role of the shaman and the tribal council, making the decisions,” she said. The priests held all the power in these remote towns and, according to the lawsuit, many of them were known sexual predators.
Another native, Rena Abouchuk, cried while she read a letter to her village priest: “You did so many evil things to young children… God will never forgive you.” Abouchuk said the priest raped and molested her and her cousins, often together in the same room, and offered to let them ring the church bell as a prize for complicity.
“You took a lot of lives,” she read aloud, crying and holding an eagle feather she’d been given at a “sobriety powwow” on New Year’s Eve. Six of her cousins, she said, have committed suicide because of that priest.
Abouchuk’s brother, wearing a black leather jacket and a blue bandanna, said the priest who abused him gave him a few quarters each time.
“My family was very, very poor at the time,” he said. “I tried to kill myself several times over this.” He became homeless, an alcoholic and drug addict, but has since become sober and lives with his sister in Spokane.
A former Benedictine monk, Patrick Wall, said 28 pedophiles from four countries were specifically sent to Alaska “to get them off the grid, where they could do the least amount of damage” to the church’s public image.
“The Catholic church has the largest body of documentation of non-incarcerated pedophiles in the world,” he said. “These guys should be sent to the Mayo clinic and studied to find out what makes them tick… they’re some of the weirdest characters you will ever meet.”
Three years ago, Roosa said, a former head of the Northwest Jesuits testified about the “hell files”—personnel files with information about priests that was “special,” “not public,” and “not good.” Sundborg allegedly would’ve had those files in his office when he was the head of the Northwest Jesuits. When Roosa tried to acquire those files from the Northwest Jesuits, he was told they didn’t exist.
Father Sundborg’s office has not yet returned requests for comment. But let’s revisit this story from 2006:
The president of Seattle University said Thursday he has no doubt that a Jesuit priest who taught at the school from about 1950 to 1976 sexually molested young boys.
But the Rev. Stephen Sundborg also said he believed that Seattle University bears no legal responsibility for the actions of Michael Toulouse, because any acts of sexual abuse he carried out occurred outside the scope of his official duties as a teacher at the school.
UPDATE
A statement from Rev. Father Sundborg:
The allegations brought against me are false. I firmly deny them. I want the victims and the entire community to know that. The complaint filed by the plaintiffs’ lawyers represents an unprincipled and irresponsible attack on my reputation. Let me be clear—my commitment to justice and reconciliation for all victims remains steadfast. The sexual abuse by Catholic priests is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of our church. I will continue to work toward the goal of bringing healing to all victims.
Wow.
No words.
“widespread conspiracy dump pedophile”
please read your work
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Like, literally.
“Native Americans” who are from Alaska are technically and legal referred to as “Alaskan Natives”
Father Guido Sarducci put it best. “They ordained Michael Jackson as a catholic priest without sending him to the seminary. They figured he already passed the preliminaries.”
(@2: Can we please just give blogs a break with this kind of thing? Language rage is misdirected at blogs. Save it for Penguin and the NYT.)
I guess what the Pope means by human sexual ecology is sending pedophiles to the tundra.
And my mother wonders why I don’t go to church anymore…
Not when it is something as easy as that, 6.
It’s not language rage…it is having the decency to read your fucking work before you put it out to the world to see your spelling errors, missed words, etc.. It reflects poorly on the paper and the site.
Why ex-Catholics like my father refer to themselves as ‘recovering Catholics’.
Right on. Did Roosa mention how today’s case relates to his 2007 settlement with the Jesuits of his other Alaskan native abuse case? I think that settlement didn’t include the Diocese of Fairbanks – is that it? Or has he found more plaintiffs now that he’s shown villagers what he can do? What court did he file this one in?
In the 1950s, minutes from a meeting of province leaders say that Toulouse “permitted a school boy to attempt intimacies” with him.
and that was all that was ever officially said about it, apparently.
that’s denial in all its glory.
“… Seattle University bears no legal responsibility for the actions of Michael Toulouse, because… abuse he carried out occurred outside the scope of his official duties as a teacher at the school.”
That isn’t consistent with the superfluous code of conduct contracts SU imposes on their faculty and students. I friend of mine’s wife was a teacher there, and as a Jesuit school, they were very interested in her personal life.
tomasyalba, am i correctly detecting some sneering in your post? do elaborate, please.
Shit – sorry, just clicked on the Times and they had some of those details. Tellingly, they mention that dioceses are finding some refuge from liability in bankruptcy court – and I noticed SU’s PR flack is icky sticky Casey Corr.
Wow, that’s fucking disgusting. Surprising? No. Disgusting? Yes.
I went to catholic shool for K-12. I received an excellent education for little money compared to private.
The Marist Brothers at my high school and the priests and sisters of S.S.M.J. were all excellent and very kind to children with absolutely no harassment of the type you speak.
Catholic schools, while having problems, were always the poor man’s private school. The clergy are paid near zero, yet many have masters degrees and ph. d.s even while teaching at the high school or elementary school level.
The thing that most saddens me is the gifted child who may not able to afford Lakeside School, but who would benefit from a more advanced education than some publics offer.
I don’t think someone calling himself “Unprofessional is as does” is really in a position to be calling out the language skills of others. Par for the course, though.
As for the priests, well, where else were they going to send them? It’s not like they can just turn them over to the authorities to face criminal penalties, as if they were ordinary citizens. These dudes are SOLDIERS OF GOD. Of course they’re going to rape a few parishioners here and there. It’s a stressful life, being a — well, whatever it is these fellows actually do to earn their crust.
They are just so full of Christ’s love that they need to release it on the children of Alaska.
Amazing that these churches are trying to take the moral high ground with gays and others who don’t share the churches beliefs.
Obviously this is a disturbing story however Father Sundborg is an amazing person and I take him at his word.
17
Unprofessional is as unprofessional does…too long for slog name
@13, you caught me. Clerical abuse pushes every button I have all at once, and I get scared and act like a jerk.
they made a documentary about this. it is free and you can get more info and watch it on their site. it is his struggle to help alaskan/canadian natives deal with this very thing.
please also sheck this link for kevin annett:
hiddenfromhistory.org
Dougsf – you may be thinking of SPU…SU doesn’t make students sign code of coduct contracts.
As any one knows who went to Catholic school.
All the priests are sick fuckin sexual perdators.
The Jesuits are the blackest demons on the planet.
Fuck the church….
Nobody beats Catholics for being suckers of an evil church. That plus their Nazi Pope!
What a wonderful way to contribute to Alaska’s already sky-high sexual assault statistics.
“I will continue to work toward the goal of bringing healing to all victims” by ignoring the problem and carrying out the Vatican’s official strategy of insisting that the problem is all taken care of and nobody needs to trouble their pretty little heads over it one more second, no sirree bob. Molestation? That’s over. No need to call the cops, now, is there? Trust us. WE’RE HANDLING IT, MMKAY?
Maybe they should get their Governor and her spiritual adviser on this.
If he’s not too busy chasing down witches.
@#19- I agree. Father Sundborg is the best thing to happen to the city’s Catholic population. I am disgusted by all theses cases of sexual abuse, however, Father Sundborg is just one man….you want to put blame on someone, blame the Pope! And it bugs me that people are bringing up SU when this has nothing to do with SU.
BTW, I grew up Catholic but am no longer “practicing”!
This report simply re-enforces the abominable dimension of the record emerging around Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVI who — as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (previously the Inquisition) settled over $1 billion on plaintiffs in the USA who charged tens of thousands of Catholic priests with paedophilia, pederasty and child molestation. The RC church is sick, sick, sick. They have maintained sexually repressive priesthoods for more than one thousand eyars, and they are now well into the second millenia of sexual repression on a grand scale led by a priest who — as a member of the Hitler Youth — killed pigeons, chickens and puppies with his bare hands. Benedict’s monstrous hatred for Muslims, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists and any others outside the RC church has driven him to ignore the genocidal onslaught taking place in Gaza.
@17: Free candy salespeople. Lost puppy finders. Unlicensed clowns.
@25 & 30 Ratzinger is also a big creepy fag.
Catholics are not the only victims of these animals. Although they are the only ones getting any help. Do not imagine that these sub humans didn’t spend their spare time cruising for victims in the general population often with old cars, not registered to them and without their monkey suits. The Worship of the evil God of Abraham, (Xians, Jews and Muslims) must be eliminated from the face of the earth like any other disease that harms children. Suffering and death to the Nazi Pope!
@17 re: “As for the priests, well, where else were they going to send them?”
Well… China.
From small town canada – we had a priest who was responsible for a diocese consisting of four small, predominantly roman catholic, communities.
He was rumoured to be inappropriately involved with a little boy.
Our diocese bishop reassigned this priest to missionary work in China and months after arriving there the priest was found murdered in his apartment. this last bit about the murder was printed in his obituary, so is matter of fact. The pedophile bit is just village rumour, but coincidence or conspiracy?
Sundborg – “my commitment to justice and reconciliation for all victims remains steadfast”
Reconciliation? Like priest and abused child can sit down together, talk about their feelings, then kiss and make up. Maybe the preist could even take confession afterwards and then you can all go to mass and everything will be just like it was before all this nasty business happened.
I was thinking we could skin these evil priests alive, then set them on fire, then the church pays a huge sum of money to the survivors. Even then we’ll still hate you and your parasitic cult.
Well we know no where the church sent the perverts. Doesn’t Alaskans have a Govenor to protect their rights? Oh I forgot Sarah Palin is racist and made her husband denounce his race. Look for more criminal complaints to come out from every State now that we will have a Justice System back that works for the people. Govenor Palin must be busy tanning herself or fixing her own criminal matters. Alaska needs help and educated non racist Leadership quick. I’ll make sure Eric Holder get’s this article so he can seen a US Attorney to help these people.
wow, just when you thought the catholic church couldn’t stoop any lower…
I went to SU and they’re much more liberal than the mainstream catholic church. They were officially reprimanded a few years ago by the archdiocese of Seattle for giving an honorary degree to a politician who was pro-choice. SU has two gay clubs (a social one and a political action one), both supported by the school administration. I don’t know about abuse committed by Jesuit priests, it may be just as bad as in other Catholic orders, but SU is a liberal school that doesn’t require students to attend religious services or profess a belief in God. They’re more interested in social justice and poverty than telling people not to have sex, which is why I chose to go to SU although I’m an atheist.
Free Fr. Sundborg!
Doesn’t surprise me. My neighbor was teaching her boy to ride a bike in an unused lot beside a ‘retirement retreat’ for priests. A lady came out and chased them away, even though she’d got permission from the head guy there. She tried Googling him to find out how to complain to him, when all she got was pedophile news stories. Residents there never come out. We figure the church was using it as a place to stash problem priests.
This shines a new light on the item that (Paul?) recently posted about the inverse proportionality of internet access (specifically, porn) to rape, where Alaska was the exception to the rule. It’s those damned Jesuit priests throwing the curve.
A man walked up to a Franciscan and Jesuit and asked, “How many novenas must you say to get a Mercedes Benz?”
The Franciscan asked, “What’s a Mercedes Benz?”
The Jesuit asked, “What’s a novena?”
Celibacy, Is not a natural human condition. The notion that someone should or could or would buy into this eschewed way of thinking and living, breeds perverseness. It questions the sanctity and holiness of the church that demands it. For to understand the human condition, to give salvation, one has to live and experience it. The pious mentality of churches is often ungodly and does a disservice to mankind.
It is best to keep ones belief and religion at home, away from those who want to exploit it.
Sundborg has been terrible for the school; I can’t think of a single thing he’s done while in charge that I support.
No comment on the news, but people praising Sundborg should stop for a minute and consider how great his resignation would be for SU.
a, thanks for mentioning Kevin Annett’s Hidden from History website and documentary that reveal jaw-dropping abuses that most people haven’t heard about yet. These atrocities include THE Dr. Mengele being brought to Canadian Catholic children’s hospitals by the CIA as “Father Joseph” to experiment on unwanted kids–compare that to the Vatican’s battle against experiments on brainless stem cells. Also, Canada and the US are littered with mass graves near Catholic-run residence “school” concentration camps for kidnapped Native Americans children. These schools had 50% death rates not only because of the planned abuses but also because the “prolife” clergy sold these kids to the CIA, Pentagon and pharmaceutical companies for deadly experiments. Also, impregnated rape victims were forced to undergo abortions by the “antiabortion” nuns. Pope Nazinger is at least our THIRD Nazi pope. Everyone overlooks Paul VI who funded the Catholic Nazi Croatian genocide of a million Serb Christian “heretics”, then helped the Nazi CIA smuggle 100,000 war criminals to North America for the Vatican’s Fourth Reich of Bush 41 & 43. — Heil Mary
Man created God. Religion is the root of all that is evil.
Most of the Aleuts living on thousands of Aleutian Islands are Russian Orthodox. Their priests marry and have normal families. They do not allowthese weirdos in their communities.
The Jesuits (High School – 4 years) and The Nuns of the Order of Saint Ann (Grade School – 8 years). I am amazed I survived. None of what I just read surprises me, as part of myself died when I was a kid too.
And the Pope wonders why I have nothing but a stone ear for any chastising he does for birth control, abortion or anything else. He finds the long held pedophilia problem of priests in the church “unspeakable” My 90 yr grandmother told me the children used to whisper “watch out for Father so and so” when she was attending a Catholic school as a child. Wake up Pope or your man made religion is over. Because obviously you haven’t been reading the Good Book…
The abuse that happened to the Alaska Natives is terrible and shameful. However, I cannot believe (and there is scant evidence) that Father Sundborg was complicit in protecting pedophiles.
As an SU grad I have to say that in my experience Father Sundborg exercised wisdom, judgement, and temperance. His commitment to social justice was clear in every sermon he gave. I’m a liberal person and a lapsed Catholic. I’m ok with criticizing the church, but I’m troubled by the condemnation of Father Sundborg on the basis of the allegations in this lawsuit.