Alaska victims of priest sex abuse begin receiving settlement checks

About 200 mostly Yup'ik victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic Church officials in Western Alaska in the 1960s and '70s have begun receiving checks from the $166 million settlement with Northwest Jesuits, reports KYUK in Bethel. Individual amounts will not be made public, attorney Ken Roosa says. A two-person panel chosen by committee will decide how much of the settlement each victim will receive. "For many of [the victims], it's an opportunity to move on, to try to piece their lives back together," Roosa said. "They will have some compensation, [but] not nearly in any sense what their claims were really worth."

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/08/19/2022353/alaska-victims-of-priest-sex-abuse.html#ixzz1VjRE90Mp