Money, Like A River, Flows

In Ireland, it was the industrial schools at the center of a horrific scandal. Children incarcerated by their government, all for the sake of doing good, to ameliorate poverty or instill strong morality, were routinely abused for decades.

The story is laid out in Katie Hanrahan's powerful novel, The Leaven Of The Pharisees.

Should it truly come as a surprise to learn that the Jesuits have now paid out $166 million to victims of the same system in a different part of the world?

For their own good, it was said at the time, Native American children were taken from their parents and packed into schools where they would learn how not to be native. The set-up is startlingly like the industrial schools of Ireland, down to the era in which the worst abuses took place.

The case against the Jesuits covers a wide area in the Pacific Northwest, a collection of lawsuits that forced the Oregon Province into bankruptcy court to survive. Over five hundred victims came forward to seek justice, a small number compared to the Irish experience, but still too many.

As in Ireland, the abuse was both sexual and psychological in nature. As in Ireland, you can bet that those who left the Jesuit-run schools entered upon a lifetime of problems, ranging from depression to alcoholism and suicide.

The pay-out will not make them whole, but it can pay for the necessary psychiatric counseling that will make life somewhat tolerable. The money will help wounded psyches to heal, even if nothing can be done to erase the scars.

First Ireland, and now the American Northwest. Where else have religious communities set up shop, to make the world a better place? Will we find more cases of abuse there as well?