Northwest Jesuits will pay $166 million to sex abuse victims in bankruptcy settlement

Northwest Jesuits will pay $166 million to sex abuse victims in bankruptcy settlement March 25, 2011

Bryan Denson, The Oregonian The Northwest's Jesuits and their insurers have agreed to pay $166.1 million in a bankruptcy settlement aimed at compensating nearly 500 people with active claims of sexual abuse by priests.

The payout is one of the largest ever made by a religious organization in the United States to abuse victims. The settlement, part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, is designed to restore financial stability to the Portland-based province....

Creditors include about 460 people with sexual-abuse claims against priests and another 15 or 20 with physical-abuse claims, Tamaki said. They are expected to vote in favor of the settlement some time in the next 45 days, with payments likely reaching them by early fall, he said.
Tamaki's firm, headquartered in Yakima, represents nearly 100 people who he says were sexually abused in Washington and Montana.

"For them, it's a record-breaking settlement and a day of justice for Native Americans who were sexually molested," he said....
Under terms of the global settlement, the Northwest's Jesuits, formally known as the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, will pay $48.1 million and their insurer will pay $118 million. About $6 million from the settlement will go into a pool for future claims, he said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/03/northwest_jesuits_will_pay_166.html

Washington woman says Jesuit priest abuse 'every single day ... was a nightmare' March 25, 2011, The Oregonian By Kimberly A.C. Wilson
....This morning, three years after she came forward as the initial plaintiff in a 21-plaintiff federal lawsuit in Spokane against priests from St. Mary’s -- a suit filed three months before the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus declared bankruptcy -- Mendez, now 55, is poised for a measure of justice.

The Northwest's Jesuits and their insurers agreed to pay $166.1 million in a bankruptcy settlement aimed at compensating nearly 500 people with active claims of sexual abuse by priests in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, including Mendez.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/03/washington_woman_says_jesuit_p.html


21-plaintiff federal lawsuit in Spokane against priests from St. Mary’s
http://media.oregonlive.com/portland_impact/other/10%20-%20Amended%20Complaint%20for%20Damages.pdf

Sex abuse victims reject Church payout offer, MPD movie

Sex abuse victims reject Church payout offer 27 Jan 11

Victims of sexual abuse at Jesuit schools in Germany said Thursday that the Catholic Church's offer of €5,000 in compensation is too low. "This sum is not at all sufficient to compensate for the damages suffered or to signal a recognition of guilt," leader of the Eckiger Tisch victim's group Thomas Weiner told daily Frankfurter Rundshau.
Weiner also said he found it incomprehensible that victims already known to the Church would have to file an application to receive the payment.

On Monday Klaus Mertes, rector of Canisius College, the elite Jesuit school in Berlin at which the first allegations surfaced, told daily Berliner Zeitungthat the 205 known victims would share about €1 million in damages payments from the Jesuit order, meaning each would receive roughly €5,000....

The onslaught of sexual and physical abuse revelations within the Catholic Church began in January 2010 when it emerged that priests at Canisius committed dozens of assaults on pupils in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then more than 200 cases of such abuse at Church institutions throughout the country have emerged.
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110127-32695.html

When the Devil Knocks January 26, 2011 CBC News Network

Until her mid-40s, Hilary Stanton lived with big gaps in her memory that she thought were normal. Then Hilary had a breakdown, started therapy, and gradually discovered that - during those gaps in memory that she thought were so normal - other personalities (“alters”) were taking over from her....Many of the therapy sessions were videotaped to train therapists in the treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). Remarkably, Hilary has given Bountiful Films permission to use these videotaped therapy sessions in a documentary - When the Devil Knocks. (website has online film)
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2011/whenthedevilknocks/