The loss of a child’s innocence at the hands of a molester / rapist is always a bitter pill for a community to swallow, however when the perpetrator is a trusted representative of the Catholic Church, “a man of God”, the effect of “the pill” within the community is equivalent to that of ingesting arsenic,…it instantly poisons the mind and the body, leaving an entire community sickened by the vile actions of “wolves” that pretended to be shepherds of lambs.
In the News….
The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province – a group of Jesuits who serve the Pacific Northwest – has agreed to pay a settlement of $166 million to childhood victims of rape and molestation.
Over the span of five decades, approximately 500 Native American and Native Alaskan children were reportedly raped and molested at Jesuit operated missions and boarding schools on Indian Reservations throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana.
The financial payout by the Society of Jesus is part of an agreement to resolve its two-year-old bankruptcy case. The payout is the third largest settlement to date in the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal and according to lawyers that represent the victims; it is the largest ever by asingle Catholic religious order.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs announced the settlement on Friday morning. Blaine Tamaki, an attorney from Yakima whose firm represented about one-third of the non-Alaskan victims, said, “Instead of teaching these Native American children about the love of God, these pedophile priests were molesting these children.” He added, “It was a culture of abuse of Native American children. Today is the day where they are acknowledging guilt.”
For over 40 years the Jesuit order has been accused of choosing the remote villages and reservations as “dumping grounds” for their problem priests.
If the allegation that leadership within the Jesuit Order knowingly “pimped native children” to “soiled priests” as a means to (1) hide their ‘dirty laundry” in predetermined remote areas and (2) placate these “dirty priests” that harbored dark and sinister secrets about the higher echelons of Jesuit society, then criminal prosecutors should next be asking, “Exactly who were these deceitful individuals oftwisted and prejudiced minds that unleashed demons in the form of humans onto an unsuspecting community and where are they NOW?”
An article written in the Seattle Post Intelligencer alleges not one of the priests, nuns, and lay workers that molested the native children have gone to prison or even jail. In fact, many who held positions of authority in the northwest province when the abuse occurred still retain prestigious positions and titles.
Sadly, state and regional statutes of limitation for criminal prosecution against the perpetrators of this hideous crime have expired in the majority of the cases; an unfortunate reality that is currently having lawmakers relook antiquated and flawed laws.
My spirit was wounded
Miss Clarita Vargas now an adult, and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, remembers being abused by the Reverend John Morse at St. Mary’s Mission and School which she attended from the second through the eighth grade. Miss Vargas said Morse would begin the crime of molestation by instituting anxiety and fear. According to her testimony, Morse (he doesn’t deserve to be called “reverend”) would sometimes lock her in a dark cellar and tell her she could not come out until she agreed to do whatever vile and disgusting thing he wanted her to do.
Vargas called the attacks on her and other native children a “generational trauma.” She told reporters that she, her siblings, and her classmates were subjected to constant sexual abuse at the school in Omak. “I was a beautiful Christian Catholic child,” she said. “Why would a person of authority try to tarnish that?”
Perhaps what was criminally taken from away from Miss Vargas in terms of faith and innocence is summed up in four of her own words, “My spirit was wounded”.
In the end and in reflection of another sad chapter in the history book of pseudo priests, the monetary settlement of $166 million will NOT cause the pain and memory of these crimes to disappear, however if used wisely, can empower the victims to discard an “ugly canvas” that crookedly hangs in the “attic” of their mind and replace it with a more beautiful portrait that when “viewed” by the victim, helps him or her feel better about the notion that the world is indeed a place of infinite beauty and compassion.
As always the New Orleans Examiner is interested in what you think. Are there more pseudo priests throughout the world that are in fact criminal rapists and molesters? And was the decision by the Jesuit leadership to send known pedophiles to native communities based on racial prejudices and insensitivities? Inquiring minds want to know. Sound off.
Until next time Louisianans, Good day, God Bless and Good Fishing.
Gregory Boyce OBNU
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario