Post date: Mar 26, 2011 1:55:29 AM
Roman Catholic priests in the Pacific Northwest agree to a $166 million settlement to address hundreds of child sexual abuse claims.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (MARCH 25, 2011) NBC - The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Roman Catholic Church's Jesuit order has agreed to pay $166 million to settle more than 500 child sexual abuse claims against priests in five states, attorneys said on Friday (March 25).
The payout by the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province -- part of an agreement to resolve its two-year-old bankruptcy case -- marks one of the biggest settlements to date in the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals.According to lawyers for the victims, it also is the largest ever by a Catholic religious order.
"The $166.1 million is the largest settlement by a religious order in the history of the world," lawyer Blaine Tamaki , who represents about 90 victims in the settlement, said.
The Oregon Province is the Northwest chapter of the Rome-based Jesuit order and covers Oregon, Washington state, Alaska, Idaho and Montana.
The victims, most of them Native Americans from remote Alaska Native villages or Indian reservations in the Pacific Northwest, were sexually or psychologically abused as children by Jesuit missionaries in those states in the 1940s through the 1990s, the plaintiffs' attorneys said.
The Jesuits' Oregon Province released its own statement saying the $166.1 million would be paid into a trust to resolve hundreds of abuse claims within a 5-state area.
The Jesuits filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2009 as litigation over sexual abuse claims was mounting.