More Alaska plaintiffs join abuse lawsuit against Jesuits

Published 11:59 am Thursday, February 5, 2009

SEATTLE — Twenty Alaska natives have joined a lawsuit claiming they were abused by Jesuits or those supervised as Jesuits, and a former regional head of the order has been added as a defendant.

With court papers filed Wednesday in Bethel, Alaska, 63 Alaska natives are now suing the Society of Jesus. They claim the sexual abuse occurred in remote villages from the late 1940s to 2001.

The new defendant, the Rev. Francis Case, was provincial or head of the Jesuit order in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s. According to the lawsuit, Case knew or should have known about at least one priest, the Rev. Francis Nawn, who is accused of abusing three plaintiffs.

Nawn is deceased. Case could not be reached for comment.