Saturday, March 26, 2011

$166 Million Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Settlement Reached

Even as the Archbishop Dolan of New York City compares same sex relationships to having sex with one's mother and the Vatican condemns the United Nations resolution against the criminalization of homosexuality and equates gay love/sex to incest and pedophilia, the ongoing hemorrhage of money in sex abuse settlements shows where the real moral bankruptcy lies. And it's not with loving and committed same sex couples. Oh no, it's instead within the halls of the Vatican and the bishoprics and cardinal's palaces where the protection of sexual predators was all too typically the norm. In the latest testament to the moral bankruptcy of the falsely pious members of the Catholic Church hierarchy, the Jesuit Order is paying our $166 million to victims in the Pacific Northwest who came forward with allegations of sexual abuse. This large sum is added to the billions of dollars paid out so far around the world. Again, I ask, why does anyone give any deference whatsoever to the monsters who have presided over an international conspiracy to cover up such foul crimes? Here are highlights from KVEW-TV:
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It's one of the largest settlements ever, in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, more than $166 million. 450 victims in the Pacific Northwest came forward with allegations of sexual abuse against the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. The St. Mary's Mission School Omak, Washington is the only school where former students alleged abuse.

Katherine mendez was sent to St. Mary's Mission school in Omak when she was 11-years-old. She says one of the priests there, Father John Morse, started abusing her during her very first week there. Mendez says the sexual abuse got worse and happened twice a week for two years.
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Bryan Smith is one of the lawyers in this settlement. He says there were 38 claims by victims against the same priest who allegedly abused Mendez. Smith, "and so the sad reality is that these priests, the problem priests, the ones that were abusing children were sent to live with children where they were helpless." The majority of them are Native American who alleged abuse while attending mission schools set up by the Jesuits on reservations.
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The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus leaders declined to comment on the settlement, saying they are doing so out of respect for the legal process, and the people involved.
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The settlement also calls for a written apology to the victims. Father John Morse now lives in a retirement community for Jesuits at Gonzaga University in Spokane. He does not face criminal charges, because child abuse victims can only report the crime before they turn 28.

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