Jesuits’ Oregon Province becomes first order to file for bankruptcy

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Comments: 6

Fr. Patrick Lee S.J.

Portland, Ore., Feb 18, 2009 / 08:20 pm (CNA).- The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday following additional sexual abuse lawsuits, thus becoming the first religious order to do so.

The bankruptcy petition was filed in Portland Federal Bankruptcy Court as an additional 200 claims of sexual abuse of primarily Alaskan children were pending or threatened against the Jesuit province, the Daily News-Miner reports.

The Oregon province has 235 Jesuit priests and brothers in the five states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Fr. Patrick J. Lee, SJ, the provincial of the Oregon Province, released a statement early Tuesday.

“It is the only way we believe that all claimants can be offered a fair financial settlement within the limited resources of the province,” Fr. Lee said.

“Our hope is that by filing Chapter 11, we can begin to bring this sad chapter in our province’s history to an end.

“We continue to pray for all those who have been hurt by the actions of a few men, so that they can receive the healing and reconciliation that they deserve.

“Chapter 11 will allow the Oregon Province to resolve pending claims, manage its financial situation and continue its various ministries in the Northwest in which it has been engaged since 1831,” he continued.

Fr. Lee’s statement reports that since 2001 the province has settled more than 200 claims and has paid in excess of $25 million from its own resources in addition to payments made by insurers.

Ken Roosa, an Anchorage attorney representing alleged sexual abuse victims, told the News-Miner that the bankruptcy filing is “ultimately an acknowledgment of what we have been saying for years is true, that Alaska was used as a dumping ground for problem priests and by filing bankruptcy they can shut off once and for all the plaintiffs opportunity to gain discovery and get evidence of what was going on here.”

He claimed that the bankruptcy move protects the province from further investigation by barring access to Jesuit records.

Roosa also said the filing will allow for more rapid settlement for victims.

Comments: 6

Subscriber comments:

Published by: H. Douglas Spruance III
Spokane, WA USA 04/03/2009 06:32 PM EST

As an attorney, I represented ten victims of abuse in the Spokane Diocese bankruptcy, and a number of other men and women abused as children in schools and churches. I have seen anger, cynicism and bitterness by victims, clergy, parisioners and their representatives. I saw the fair handling of the Spokane claims give understanding to all of these groups of people who came to see better the pain, anger and suffering of others. I feel that what started out as an impossible situation came to resolution through the hard work of most of those involved. I know that all of my clients got closure, and found some level of better life, where they had been bitter, severely hurt, lost from God and very alone. It is easy for those who have never, as children, been made vulnerable by their love of God and Christ, and, following the instructions of their loving parents to love and respect Father_____, then been betrayed in all of this love and teaching, in the most hurtful ways imaginable. For the church to reach out to them is not only right and just, but also brings great relief to their suffering. These are the most compelling cases I have had in 34 years of representing all types of people and corporations.

Published by: D. R. Garcia
Arlington VA 02/23/2009 08:38 PM EST

John Shuster suspects that at least another 28 Jesuit predators have never faced legal action and are known to secretive church officials.

If he has knowledge of this he must come forward with the information to police.

Published by: Virgilijus Kaulius
Vancouver 02/20/2009 05:53 AM EST

It remains a sick historical aberration that future history I pray condemns no differently than the Holocaust: America's pathetic legal system of hurting the greater common good!

To me this is appaling that a Jesuit Province needs to face this kind of needless calamity at the expense of questionable claims etc.

Being a WWII war baby who has 1st hand experience of the worst of humanity, I chastise the First Nations for being so self-centered in such post-hisorical nonsence and get their own family units in order before they point their finger elsewhere!

Sin is universal: there is no one that lives in a glass building! America needs to divest itself of sick legalism which is destroying it from within, on all fronts!

Who will shut out the lights when Washington files for Chapter 11 ? (!)

God help us because so far we don't know how to help ourselves!

PS: If my family sued Moscow for all the ills and actual murders in Siveria, there
would be no Russia left standing! But in America, we would rather ruin anything the "moves" because America's legal sickness is to stop all "movement!"

Published by: Sarah
Toronto, Canada 02/19/2009 11:55 PM EST

I grieve for those who were abused by clergy but I fail to see how taking away every single dime from the Jesuits will further justice. Yes, there were bad priests and they should be punished, if not in this world, then for certain in the next. BUT why should all priests be punished for the sins of a few? And what about all the good work that non-abusive priests have done? What do the people want...for all the Jesuits (good or bad) to be put in debtors' prison? If there is no money, then bankruptcy is appropriate. By the way, to take away everything from the Jesuits is not justice but instead, vengeance. God has said we are to leave vengeance to Him. Instead, if these crimes are past the statute-of-limitations, then we must ask the leader of the Jesuits to make enquires and to give the guilty church penalties!

Published by: James Stewart
Shippenville PA 16254 02/19/2009 09:56 AM EST

This is what happens when sin is in our midst.This is the day the Lord hath made,Blessed be God forever.

Published by: John Shuster
Seattle, WA 02/18/2009 08:47 PM EST

Shame on the Jesuits for exploiting the Chapter 11 process to shield their secrets and continue concealing their complicity. And shame on them for using deceptive, insensitive language to minimize and deny their culpability and further hurt those already in deep pain.

At least 28 child molesting Jesuit clergymen have been publicly exposed as serial predators in the Northwest. We suspect there are at least that many others who've never faced legal action and whose identities are known only to secretive church officials.

History, psychology and common sense suggest that there are at least that many other Catholic officials, Jesuit and diocesan, who knew of or suspected these terrible crimes, but stayed silent or helped hide them.

So it's deceitful for Jesuits to call this awful, on-going scandal the result of "a few men."

Consider the rest of the Jesuit's language. Years of deceit and child rape in unsuspecting parishes and native villages become a "sad chapter in our province's history." Devastating felonies against innocent kids by dozens of alleged spiritual leaders become "the actions of a few men." Deeply wounded men and women who were raped and sodomized as kids become "claimants." Long-standing and largely successful but callous and reckless efforts to hide these crimes become ignored. (There's no mention whatsoever of the role of the Jesuit hierarchy in all of this, conveniently helping church officials keep the focus on the 'bad apple' predator priests.)

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