‘Absolute Power’
Decades of abuse by Roman Catholic priests and volunteers still taint Eskimo villagers in rural Alaska.
In the Yupik Eskimo village where Tom Cheemuk lived as a child in the 1960s, there was no running water. Homes in the tiny community of St. Michael were lit with gas lamps and generators. The town shared a single telephone. As a boy Cheemuk picked berries and gathered goose eggs on the pockmarked Alaskan tundra and fished for tomcod on the windy shores of the Bering Strait. Like most other children, he also spent many days inside the weather-beaten little Catholic church, helping the Jesuit missionaries who held such powerful sway over Eskimo life. That meant doing what you were told—even if it was wrong—and staying silent about it.
For Cheemuk, now 53, the past was buried for decades, through a lifetime of struggling with shame, anger and alcoholism. "I remember Mom asked me why there was blood on my underclothes," he said one recent frigid night in his cramped house in the Eskimo village. He sat alongside his wife, sometimes breaking into tears. "I was afraid to tell her what happened. I thought I might go to jail."
It is one of the darkest chapters of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. More than 110 children in Eskimo villages claim they were molested between 1959 and 1986, raped or assaulted by 12 priests and three church volunteers. Families and victims believe that another 22 people were sexually abused by clergy members but have since killed themselves. The Jesuit Oregon Province, which includes Alaska, has agreed to pay $50 million in damages. It is believed to be the largest settlement ever against a religious order.
Chris Cooke, a partner in an Anchorage law firm that has represented Eskimo victims, voices outrage over the staggering level of abuse by priests and church volunteers. "They had absolute power over the people and the culture," says Cooke. "They had language power. They had political power. They had racial power. They had the power to send you to hell. There was nowhere for victims to turn."
This is a culture that values emotional restraint. Especially among men, talking about pain is rare. Cheemuk once tried to escape the nightmares by putting a gun to his head. His wife grabbed the gun as he pulled the trigger, the bullet whizzing past his head. But two of his brothers did take their own lives. Cheemuk wonders if they were abused too.
Cheemuk was allegedly abused by Joseph Lundowski, a volunteer who performed many of the duties of a priest. In the span of seven horrific years, Lundowski allegedly abused nearly every boy in the villages of St. Michael and neighboring Stebbins. Thirty-eight of these men, now in their late 40s and 50s, have come forward to say Lundowski abused them. Villagers believe six other alleged victims committed suicide. Ken Roosa, a lawyer in Anchorage, began taking his first Jesuit priest abuse cases in 2002. When he later ran a newspaper ad seeking information about Lundowski, calls poured in, and eventually the church volunteer, now deceased, was accused by a total of 60 victims, the majority of the Alaska abuse cases covered in the $50 million settlement.
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Member Comments
Posted By: eddiewhere @ 02/01/2008 6:15:23 AM
Comment: Comment: Neutering, from the Latin ne??ter (of neither type).
Abusing Eskimos. WOW. The Catholic Church is filled with evil priests who disguise themselves as men of GOD. The Catholic Church needs to let priest get married or people will not trust them. It is obvious that this abuse has been going on for centuries and is institutionalized. This abuse has even spread to the furthest corners of the earth. Not even the eskimos can escape. This is crazy. THey need to "neuter" priests so that they will not commit this horrific crimes against Humanity. If they agree to be selebent then they should be neutered, if not let family men lea d the church and rid it of these sicko's. Sterelizing priest should become law. Neutering, from the Latin ne??ter (of neither type).
THE CHURCH ONLY BANNED pRIEST FROM GETTING MARRIED IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. tHE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS LOSING LAND TO THE WIDOWS OF pRIEST. uNFORTUNATELY THIS ABUSE IS INTSTITUTIONALIZED AND HAS BEEN GOING ON IN THE VATICAN FOR CENTURIES. thIS IS WHY THEY DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO, THE ARE pART OF IT. IT IS TIME pRIEST ARE ALLOWED TO BE HUMAN. IT IS AGAINST BIOLOGICAL Nature FOR A MAN TO STAY SELEBENT. tHIS IS MADNESS AND IS CAUSING pRIESTS TO ENGAGE IN VULGAR ACTIVITY. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CANNOT BE REFORMED, THEY WILL NOT ALLOW pRIEST TO BE HUMAN, IT IS NOT IN THEIR ECONOMIC INTEREST. THIS IS A FACT.
Posted By: jimcarr60 @ 01/30/2008 5:15:37 PM
Comment: To Mr. Cheemuck, I offer the most heartfelt apology for the wrongs done to you, and the many others, by men clothed in the garb which once stood for charity and safety of the highest order. There is no more heinous sin on earth today. No amount of money, no explanation, no promise to be more cautious, will remove this ugly stain from the Catholic Church. This breaks my heart, since I, too, am a Catholic and believe in the "fullness of truth" that our faith preserves in the name of Christ.
What angers me is any attempt to answer these sins with an explanation meant to dampen the damage done to people and the Faith. The statement that pedophilia was not understood "back then", or the comparisons made of similar behavior performed by other Reigions, or secular groups.
At no time in the history of the Catholic Church could these sins be rationalized. Catholic priests are highly educated in Catholic Morality, Catholic Obediance, the Word of God, and voluntarily accept celibacy as a means of devoting themselves wholly to God and the needs of the Church. At NO moment during their act of molesting, could they EVER think that what they were doing was not a grave sin. Impossible! Unless they were truly out-of their-minds. The fact that they cleverly warned their victims about telling on them, stands as the simplest proof that they were doing something wrong. Saying that all pedophiles act this way is evading the truth of the matter at hand: A Catholic Priest is held to an extremely higher standard, and he knows it - has always known it.
Words fail me in explaining my utter disgust with the whole matter. I want the Bishops and Priests of the Church to beg forgiveness from the world with no strings attached. Admit that in this area, you have failed as Men of God, you have damaged the Church immensely, you have wreaked havoc on the very souls of innocent people and may have been responsible for their hatred of God, and lastly you have sullied the name of God, having Him re-mocked and scourged by a new generation.
Please rise out of this hell you wanted no part of, Mr.Cheemuk. God loves you even more, for He sees what you have suffered from these demons posing as priests. Do not let their stink cling to you anymore, you have "told on the Devil" and God wants to give you a great big hug.
Posted By: joanneroy @ 01/25/2008 9:56:45 AM
Comment: What happened to these innocent children was absolutely heinous and wrong, but lets not forget that all molesters use authority of some sort to lure children. This happens everywhere, not just the Catholic Church. Babysitters misuse their authority, pastors, reverends, priests, boy scout leaders, parents, uncles, etc.... , all use their position of authority to manipulate their victims. The Catholic Church absolutely handled this situation wrong, but lets be real honest here about how most people back then dealt with sexual abuse- they didn't! People sat back in silence and did nothing b/c we don't have the kind of information and resources that we do today. People didn't understand that pedophilia is a disease and more often than not, incurable, so reprimanding and transferring a priest was thought to be enough- clearly wasn't, but again, this was the mindset of that time. The question is, how will the Catholic Church prevent this today and how will those that molest be handled?
Lastly, anyone who believes that allowing priests to be married will cure their pedophilia is just ignorant. This isn't about hormones, this is a sickness and there is no cure.