Alaskan Sorrow

The remote village of St. Michael, Alaska, with 446 residents, is unreachable by road. Many adults in the town say they were abused as children.

It is one of the darkest chapters of sexual abuse in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Between 1959 and 1986 more than 110 children in remote Alaskan villages claim they were molested, raped or assaulted by 12 priests and three church volunteers. Families and victims believe another 22 people who have since killed themselves were also sexually abused by clergy. The Jesuit Oregon Province, which includes Alaska, has agreed to pay $50 million in damages—believed to be the largest settlement ever against a religious order. Here, in pictures, are images of lives and communities wrecked by a dark secret.