More plaintiffs join abuse lawsuit against Jesuits

Twenty more Alaska Natives have joined a lawsuit alleging they were abused by Jesuit priests or people under their supervision in remote Alaska villages.

"It was nothing less than sexual and cultural war on Alaska Natives and native people," John C. Manly of Newport Beach, Calif., a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told a news conference Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, Jesuits known to be pedophiles were sent from around the world to the Fairbanks Diocese in Alaska and, along with some of their employees and volunteers, committed child abuse ranging from fondling to rape in the hamlets of Nulato, Hooper Bay, Stebbins, Chevak, Mountain Village, Nunam Iqua and St. Michael.

The lawsuit now has 63 plaintiffs and dozens more may be added, Manly said. He also said the world head of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus had been served in the United States with court papers naming him as a defendant.

In addition, The Rev. Francis E. Case, who retired last year as secretary or second-ranking official of the order and now lives at Seattle University, was added as a defendant in the 112-page amended lawsuit filed this week in Bethel, Alaska. He's accused of covering up abuse by priests.

In a deposition taken in May for a different child abuse lawsuit against the Jesuits, Case told Manly that as provincial he tried to keep such matters from becoming public to protect the "reputation" and "the good name of the society."

Case was provincial or head of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, which covers Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana, from about 1986 to 1990, and knew or should have known about pedophile priests, including the Rev. Francis Nawn, who is accused of abusing three plaintiffs, according to the lawsuit.

Case is described in the lawsuit as head of campus ministry and is listed on the Seattle University Web site as being involved in campus ministry, but university spokesman Casey Corr said the Web site was in error and that Case is neither employed at the school nor has any formal role or duties with campus ministry.

Struggling to retain his composure, Delbert C. Acoman, a police officer in Stebbins, Alaska, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told the news conference that he and a cousin were among those abused by Nawn, who is now deceased.

One day after church in the summer of 1987, he said, the priest invited him to stay and "joking turned into physical touching. He told me to pull down my pants."

Acoman said Nawn grabbed his penis and one of the priest's fingernails caught on some skin.

"Father Nawn left a scar on me. It's going to be with me for the rest of my life ... it's on my private area, down there. He tore a piece of skin off," he said.

The priest never abused him again but "told me that if I told anyone it would be a sin and I would go to hell if I told anyone," Acoman said.

Manly said he and other lawyers handling the case expect another 50 to 100 Alaska Natives to join the lawsuit.

The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, superior general and top official of the Jesuits in Rome, was named as a defendant when the case was filed Jan. 13 in Alaska Superior Court. He was served with the lawsuit late last week in Los Angeles, Manly said.

Nicolas was handed the documents while visiting Homeboy Industries, a job program run by a Jesuit priest for young gang members, and did not give any response to the process server, Manly said.

Plaintiffs are asking that Nicolas extend his U.S. trip to investigate abuse by Jesuits.

There was no response to a call to Jesuit headquarters in Rome for comment Thursday.

James Rogers, a spokesman for the Jesuit Conference of the United States in Washington, D.C., said by telephone he could not comment because the conference was not involved in the assignment or monitoring of priests.

In an e-mail, Case referred a request for comment to the Oregon Province. The Very Rev. Patrick J. Lee, the current provincial, declined comment Thursday because the Jesuits' lawyers have not seen the amended lawsuit, spokesman Patrick Walsh wrote in an e-mail.

In the past, Lee and his predecessor, the Rev. Stephen V. Sundborg, president of Seattle University since July 1997, have denied they knew of sexual wrongdoing or were involved in covering up wrongdoing by priests, although the order has paid millions of dollars in recent years to settle sexual abuse claims in Alaska.

In a statement issued last month through a spokesman, Lee wrote that Jesuits were assigned to the Fairbanks Diocese at their own request because of their "deep desire to spread the gospel."