Here is “Nuns Blast Catholic Church’s ‘Doctrine Of Discovery’ That Justified Indigenous Oppression.“
Catholic Church
Navajo Tribal Court Suit against Gallup Diocese: Interesting, Even Strange Supreme Court Implications
As we noted a few weeks ago, the Navajo Nation Supreme Court remanded a suit against the Gallup Diocese. The suit apparently alleges sexual abuse against Catholic priests and others against the plaintiff, a John Doe. The case does not have national importance yet, but it one day could.
Consider a class action suit brought in tribal court against any number of Catholic dioceses around the nation. We could have them here in Michigan in relation to the Holy Childhood school abuses, which are extensive and extensively documented.
Most outsiders would say why not sue in state or federal court, but a significant portion of the claimed abuses would have happened within reservation boundaries, making tribal court jurisdiction an issue. If the torts alleged occurred on church property, then the Montana case becomes the “pathmarking” doctrine. Since the church probably never consented to tribal jurisdiction, what remains is Montana 2 — the so-called health, welfare, political integrity, and economic security exception to the general rule that tribes cannot assert jurisdiction over nonmembers.
A class action successfully proving intergenerational trauma and multiple wrongful deaths could arguably meet the Montana 2 criteria, even in a federal circuit court.
So that raises the specter of Supreme Court review. Seven of the nine Justices, at least right now, are Catholic. Will they have to recuse themselves? Actually, they aren’t required to at all, but will they? I would guess no. It’s one thing to persuade the Court to affirm tribal jurisdiction, but another to persuade the Court to affirm jurisdiction over a Catholic diocese.
I always thought the commentary about the fact that there are so many Catholics on the Court was kind of silly, until I started thinking about this case.
Interesting, and strange.
Alaska Natives tentatively settle Catholic sex abuse lawsuit
Ken Roosa, an Anchorage lawyer representing 110 Alaska Natives reporting sexual abuse at the hands of Jesuit priests, has reported a tentative settlement of $50 million with an Oregon-based Jesuit province.
The LA Times coverage of the lawsuit also noted the following:
“A dozen priests and three missionaries were accused of sexually abusing Eskimo children in 15 villages and Nome from 1961 to 1987. The flood of allegations led to accusations that the Eskimo communities were a dumping ground for abusive priests and lay workers affiliated with the Jesuit order, which supplied bishops, priests and lay missionaries to the Fairbanks diocese.
Jesuit officials have denied transferring molesting priests to Alaska, saying that it was a prestigious assignment for the most courageous and faithful. In Jesuit fundraising literature, Eskimo villages were called “the world’s most difficult mission field.”
Many plaintiffs said their once devoutly Catholic villages — cut off from the world and without law enforcement — offered a perfect setting for a molesting priest. In 2005, The Times published a story about Joseph Lundowski, a Jesuit deacon who allegedly sexually abused nearly every boy in two small villages on St. Michael Island between 1968 and 1975.
Lundowski’s accusers — now in their 40s and 50s — said the abuse led to alcoholism, violence, emotional problems and suicide attempts. They kept their secret — not even talking about it among themselves — until the Catholic Church sex scandal erupted in 2002.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/us/19priest.html?ref=us
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004022435_jesuit19m.html
Turtle Talk 