Posts by behemot

1

Oldest gay concentration-camp survivor dies

by behemot in

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rudolf brazda, believed to be the oldest known gay survivor of a nazi concentration camp, died aug. 3 at the age of 98, according to reports from a leading german lgbt-rights group.. brazda was one of thousands of gay men deported to concentration camps during world war ii.

the nazi regime under adolf hitler viewed homosexuality as an aberration and a threat to the aryan race.

more than 50,000 homosexuals were convicted as criminals during the nazi reign.. in august 1942, brazda was brought to buchenwald concentration camp after he admitted being gay.

behemot

Rudolf Brazda, believed to be the oldest known gay survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, died Aug. 3 at the age of 98, according to reports from a leading German LGBT-rights group.

Brazda was one of thousands of gay men deported to concentration camps during World War II. The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler viewed homosexuality as an aberration and a threat to the Aryan race. More than 50,000 homosexuals were convicted as criminals during the Nazi reign.

In August 1942, Brazda was brought to Buchenwald concentration camp after he admitted being gay. He stayed there until U.S. forces invaded three years later, and Brazda has likened his experiences in the camp to descending into hell.

"But they were never able to destroy me," Brazda said. "I am not ashamed. I have made my peace with the past."

The son of Czech immigrants, Brazda was born in Meuselwitz, Germany, on June 26, 1913. The youngest of eight children, he dreamed of working in a local gentleman's clothing shop, but ultimately trained as a roofer when he was unable to procure an apprenticeship elsewhere.

Although homosexual acts were outlawed in the Weimar Republic, Brazda was able to live as an openly gay man as he came of age in the 1930s. Local culture was relatively tolerant, and Brazda and his boyfriend, Werner, lived together in room they sublet from a Jehovah's Witness landlady.

That all changed when the Nazis came to power. "We gays were hunted like animals," Brazda has said. "Wherever I went with my companion the Nazis were always already there."

After several run-ins with Nazi officials and a handful of detentions, Brazda was brought to Buchenwald in 1942, at the age of 29. It is estimated that anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were held in concentration camps during WWII.

Known as "pink triangles" for the emblems they wore denoting their sexual orientation—Jews wore yellow, gypsies black, Jehovah's witnesses purple, etc.—gay men were subject to particularly harsh punishments in the camps. These included extreme beatings, "extermination through labor," castration and invasive medical experimentation intended to make the men "normal."

"The way Nazis treated the 'pink triangles' is unspeakable," Brazda told the French publication Têtu. "They had absolutely no mercy."

When the Nazi regime collapsed in 1945 and S.S. guards took most of Buchenwald's prisoners on a 'death march,' Brazda was saved by a guard who took pity on him. "He put me in a shed with the pigs, made me a bed and I lay there for 14 days until the Americans came," Brazda recalled. "After that, I was a free man."

Brazda settled in Alsace, France, near the French-German border after the war and maintained a relatively low profile. He met his partner Edi in 1950, and the couple remained together until Edi died in 2002.

Brazda came out as a gay survivor in 2008, when a monument dedicated to the thousands of gays persecuted by Nazis was revealed in Berlin. Brazda traveled to the city and met with its mayor Klaus Wowereit, an openly gay man who held a ceremony for Brazda.

"He is an example of how important the work of remembrance is for our future," Wowereit said. "Fewer and fewer people can give information about repression under the Nazi dictatorship authentically and from their own experience."

source: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=33225

... what an open-minded landlady! wonder if she got in trouble with the congregation for subletting to a gay couple ...

5

O.C. man upset with church teachings convicted of hate crime

by behemot in

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an orange county man charged with lighting fires at an irvine church because he was disgruntled about its teachings against masturbation was convicted tuesday of committing hate-crime arson, authorities said.. izad chavoshan, 32, who lives in huntington beach, set trash cans on fire in front of the orange county church of christ on three separate occasions in october 2009, prosecutors said.. chavoshan was a former church member who disagreed with the church's teachings against masturbation, according to the orange county district attorney's office.. chavoshan pleaded guilty to three felony counts of arson, one felony count of attempted arson and a hate-crime sentencing enhancement.

he has a prior strike conviction for criminal threats in 1998 and faces a sentence ranging from probation to up to 20 years in state prison, the district attorney's office said.. he is scheduled to be sentenced aug. 19 at the santa ana courthouse.. source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/oc-man-convicted-church-masturbation-hate-crime.html.

behemot

An Orange County man charged with lighting fires at an Irvine church because he was disgruntled about its teachings against masturbation was convicted Tuesday of committing hate-crime arson, authorities said.

Izad Chavoshan, 32, who lives in Huntington Beach, set trash cans on fire in front of the Orange County Church of Christ on three separate occasions in October 2009, prosecutors said.

Chavoshan was a former church member who disagreed with the church's teachings against masturbation, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Chavoshan pleaded guilty to three felony counts of arson, one felony count of attempted arson and a hate-crime sentencing enhancement. He has a prior strike conviction for criminal threats in 1998 and faces a sentence ranging from probation to up to 20 years in state prison, the district attorney's office said.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19 at the Santa Ana courthouse.

source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/oc-man-convicted-church-masturbation-hate-crime.html

1

Court nixes Jehovahs Witness suit against doctors for saving her life

by behemot in

a new york court has dismissed a suit by a jehovahs witness who sued doctors for giving her a blood transfusion that saved her life.

nancy digeronimo sued her doctor and staten island university hospital for medical malpractice alleging the transfusions of another persons blood conflicted with her religious beliefs, reports the staten island advance newspaper.. the 5-year-old case against dr. allen fuchs and university hospital, was dismissed with the court finding the transfusion didnt deviate from accepted standards of care and that digeronimo had failed to show the infusion of blood had hurt her.. digeronimo, then 34, was released from the hospital on april 9, 2004, five days after giving birth.. the plaintiffs argument, taken to its logical conclusion, is that the doctor should have allowed her to die rather than give her an allogenic blood transfusion, state supreme court justice joseph j. maltese wrote in a decision handed down thursday.

since the plaintiffs transfusion saved her life, this action is analogous to one for wrongful life against the doctor.

behemot

A New York court has dismissed a suit by a Jehovah’s Witness who sued doctors for giving her a blood transfusion that saved her life.

Nancy DiGeronimo sued her doctor and Staten Island University Hospital for medical malpractice alleging the transfusions of another person’s blood conflicted with her religious beliefs, reports the Staten Island Advance newspaper.

The 5-year-old case against Dr. Allen Fuchs and University Hospital, was dismissed with the court finding the transfusion didn’t deviate from accepted standards of care and that DiGeronimo had failed to show the infusion of blood had hurt her.

DiGeronimo, then 34, was released from the hospital on April 9, 2004, five days after giving birth.

“The plaintiff’s argument, taken to its logical conclusion, is that the doctor should have allowed her to die rather than give her an ‘allogenic’ blood transfusion,” state Supreme Court Justice Joseph J. Maltese wrote in a decision handed down Thursday. “Since the plaintiff’s transfusion saved her life, this action is analogous to one for ‘wrongful life’ against the doctor. However, there is no cause of action for ‘wrongful life’ in the state of New York. In this case, there is no departure from good and acceptable medical care and there is no proximate cause of a legally recognized injury.”

Dr. Fuchs’ lawyer, Irene Ziegler of the Bloomfield-based firm of Amabile & Erman, said she was “happy” for him. “I think the judge made the correct decision,” she said.

1

Dying JW stirs euthanasia debate in Italy

by behemot in

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rome - a dying jehovah's witness in italy has won the legal right not to receive treatment, sparking a heated debate on thursday between supporters and opponents of euthanasia in this predominantly catholic country.. .

"i don't want my life to be prolonged if doctors are reasonably convinced that my case is hopeless," clarice di tullio, 48, had told the court in treviso in northern italy.

judges respected her wish in a ruling earlier this week.. .

behemot

Rome - A dying Jehovah's Witness in Italy has won the legal right not to receive treatment, sparking a heated debate on Thursday between supporters and opponents of euthanasia in this predominantly Catholic country.

"I don't want my life to be prolonged if doctors are reasonably convinced that my case is hopeless," Clarice Di Tullio, 48, had told the court in Treviso in northern Italy. Judges respected her wish in a ruling earlier this week.

She has multiple sclerosis - a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, which is attempting to pass a bill in parliament that would outlaw these types of end-of-life decisions, reacted angrily to the Di Tullio ruling.

The judgment "aims to introduce assisted suicide which is not allowed under our laws," said Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi, a militant Catholic.

"Only parliament can take such important decisions. I hope it never does."

But Massimo Cozza from the leftist CGIL Medici trade union said: "This judgment does not help assisted suicide but rather guarantees respect for the will expressed" by patients under the ethical code used by doctors.

That view was shared by Ignazio Marino, a senator from the main opposition Democratic Party who is himself a doctor. "The judge took a decision knowing the cause and taking into account also the religion of the person," he said.

Last month lawmakers approved a draft law that states that treatment to feed and give water to patients can never be suspended unless they "are no longer efficient or adapted to the living conditions of the patient".

The law, supported by the Vatican, still has to be approved by the Senate.

source: http://www.news24.com/World/News/Dying-Italian-stirs-euthanasia-debate-20110804

13

Famous atheists explain why they don't believe

by behemot in

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http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2011/07/god-evidence-believe-world.

behemot

http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2011/07/god-evidence-believe-world

91

Why do Americans still dislike atheists?

by behemot in

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by gregory paul and phil zuckerman (washington post).

long after blacks and jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of americans just dont like much: atheists.

those who dont believe in god are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry.

behemot

By Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman (Washington Post)

Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.

Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently — and uncivilly — declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens.

Is this knee-jerk dislike of atheists warranted? Not even close.

A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.

Consider that at the societal level, murder rates are far lower in secularized nations such as Japan or Sweden than they are in the much more religious United States, which also has a much greater portion of its population in prison. Even within this country, those states with the highest levels of church attendance, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, have significantly higher murder rates than far less religious states such as Vermont and Oregon.

As individuals, atheists tend to score high on measures of intelligence, especially verbal ability and scientific literacy. They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are, and are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought.

While many studies show that secular Americans don’t fare as well as the religious when it comes to certain indicators of mental health or subjective well-being, new scholarship is showing that the relationships among atheism, theism, and mental health and well-being are complex. After all, Denmark, which is among the least religious countries in the history of the world, consistently rates as the happiest of nations. And studies of apostates — people who were religious but later rejected their religion — report feeling happier, better and liberated in their post-religious lives.

Nontheism isn’t all balloons and ice cream. Some studies suggest that suicide rates are higher among the non-religious. But surveys indicating that religious Americans are better off can be misleading because they include among the non-religious fence-sitters who are as likely to believe in God, whereas atheists who are more convinced are doing about as well as devout believers. On numerous respected measures of societal success — rates of poverty, teenage pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, drug use and crime, as well as economics — high levels of secularity are consistently correlated with positive outcomes in first-world nations. None of the secular advanced democracies suffers from the combined social ills seen here in Christian America.

More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them. So when the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Newt Gingrich engage in the politics of division and destruction by maligning atheists, they do so in disregard of reality.

As with other national minority groups, atheism is enjoying rapid growth. Despite the bigotry, the number of American nontheists has tripled as a proportion of the general population since the 1960s. Younger generations’ tolerance for the endless disputes of religion is waning fast. Surveys designed to overcome the understandable reluctance to admit atheism have found that as many as 60 million Americans — a fifth of the population — are not believers. Our nonreligious compatriots should be accorded the same respect as other minorities.

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-americans-still-dislike-atheists/2011/02/18/AFqgnwGF_story.html

19

Stephen Hawking interview by Guardian: There is no Heaven

by behemot in

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven.

behemot

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven

2

Two JWs accused of attacking priest in Armenia

by behemot in

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police identified two jehovahs witnesses who attacked priestmay 18, 2011 - 19:24 amtpanarmenian.net - armenian police identified the two followers of jehovahs witnesses sect, suspected of attacking a priest yesai artenyan.. the sectarians, andranik mnatsakanyan and samvel grigoryan were summoned to a police station to give evidence.. a case has not been instigated yet.

the attacked priest is to be examined by an expert in forensic medicine.. according to media reports, on may 15, two followers of jehovahs witnesses sect attacked yesai artenyan and beat him in the yard of the holy trinity church in response to the priests demand to stop preaching in the church territory.

the beating was accompanied by bad language and threats.. source: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/society/news/70265/police_identified_two_jehovahs_witnesses_who_attacked_priest.

behemot

Police identified two Jehovah’s Witnesses who attacked priest

May 18, 2011 - 19:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian police identified the two followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses sect, suspected of attacking a priest Yesai Artenyan.

The sectarians, Andranik Mnatsakanyan and Samvel Grigoryan were summoned to a police station to give evidence.

A case has not been instigated yet. The attacked priest is to be examined by an expert in forensic medicine.

According to media reports, on May 15, two followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses sect attacked Yesai Artenyan and beat him in the yard of the Holy Trinity Church in response to the priest’s demand to stop preaching in the church territory. The beating was accompanied by bad language and threats.

source: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/society/news/70265/Police_identified_two_Jehovahs_Witnesses_who_attacked_priest

... sounds weird ...

Father and Son by Edmund Gosse

by behemot in

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i just finished reading this book:.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/father_and_son_(book).

the author grew up in a profoundly religious and devout household belonging to the plymouth brethren and in this book he tells the story of his upbringing and of his fight for intellectual freedom.. in many ways, his account reminded me of the environment where those among us who were born in the truth have grown up, and of the psychological and intellectual struggles many of us went through in our journey towards intellectual independence.. .

behemot

I just finished reading this book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_and_Son_(book)

The author grew up in a profoundly religious and devout household belonging to the “Plymouth Brethren” and in this book he tells the story of his upbringing and of his fight for intellectual freedom.

In many ways, his account reminded me of the environment where those among us who were “born in the truth” have grown up, and of the psychological and intellectual struggles many of us went through in our journey towards intellectual independence.

You can download (or read online) the book here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2540

Just a few excerpts to give you a taste of the book:

The peculiarities of a family life, founded upon such principles, are, in relation to a little child, obvious; but I may be permitted to recapitulate them. Here was perfect purity, perfect intrepidity, perfect abnegation; yet there was also narrowness, isolation, an absence of perspective, let it be boldly admitted, an absence of humanity. And there was a curious mixture of humbleness and arrogance; entire resignation to the will of God and not less entire disdain of the judgement and opinion of man. My parents founded every action, every attitude, upon their interpretation of the Scriptures, and upon the guidance of the Divine Will as revealed to them by direct answer to prayer. Their ejaculation in the face of any dilemma was, 'Let us cast it before the Lord!'

So confident were they of the reality of their intercourse with God, that they asked for no other guide. They recognized no spiritual authority among men, they subjected themselves to no priest or minister, they troubled their consciences about no current manifestation of 'religious opinion'. They lived in an intellectual cell, bounded at its sides by the walls of their own house, but open above to the very heart of the uttermost heavens.

My own state, however, was, I should think, almost unique among the children of cultivated parents. In consequence of the stern ordinance which I have described, not a single fiction was read or told to me during my infancy. The rapture of the child who delays the process of going to bed by cajoling 'a story' out of his mother or his nurse, as he sits upon her knee, well tucked up, at the corner of the nursery fire—this was unknown to me. Never in all my early childhood did anyone address to me the affecting preamble, 'Once upon a time!' I was told about missionaries, but never about pirates; I was familiar with hummingbirds, but I had never heard of fairies—Jack the Giant- Killer, Rumpelstiltskin and Robin Hood were not of my acquaintance; and though I understood about wolves, Little Red Ridinghood was a stranger even by name. So far as my 'dedication' was concerned, I can but think that my parents were in error thus to exclude the imaginary from my outlook upon facts. They desired to make me truthful; the tendency was to make me positive and sceptical. Had they wrapped me in the soft folds of supernatural fancy, my mind might have been longer content to follow their traditions in an unquestioning spirit.

Although her faith was so strong and simple, my Mother possessed no quality of the mystic. She never pretended to any visionary gifts, believed not at all in dreams or portents, and encouraged nothing in herself or others which was superstitious or fantastic. In order to realize her condition of mind, it is necessary, I think, to accept the view that she had formed a definite conception of the absolute, unmodified and historical veracity, in its direct and obvious sense, of every statement contained within the covers of the Bible. For her, and for my Father, nothing was symbolic, nothing allegorical or allusive in any part of Scripture, except what was, in so many words, proffered as a parable or a picture. Pushing this to its extreme limit, and allowing nothing for the changes of scene or time or race, my parents read injunctions to the Corinthian converts without any suspicion that what was apposite in dealing with half-breed Achaian colonists of the first century might not exactly apply to respectable English men and women of the nineteenth. They took it, text by text, as if no sort of difference existed between the surroundings of Trimalchion's feast and those of a City dinner. Both my parents, I think, were devoid of sympathetic imagination; in my Father, I am sure, it was singularly absent. Hence, although their faith was so strenuous that many persons might have called it fanatical, there was no mysticism about them. They went rather to the opposite extreme, to the cultivation of a rigid and iconoclastic literalness.

Our thoughts were at this time abundantly exercised with the expectation of the immediate coming of the Lord, who, as my Father and those who thought with him believed, would suddenly appear, without the least warning, and would catch up to be with Him in everlasting glory all whom acceptance of the Atonement had sealed for immortality. These were, on the whole, not numerous […]My Father lived for nearly a quarter of a century more, never losing the hope of 'not tasting death', and as the last moments of mortality approached, he was bitterly disappointed at what he held to be a scanty reward of his long faith and patience.

I especially liked the author’s conclusion:

Let me speak plainly. After my long experience, after my patience and forbearance, I have surely the right to protest against the untruth (would that I could apply to it any other word!) that evangelical religion, or any religion in a violent form, is a wholesome or valuable or desirable adjunct to human life. It divides heart from heart. It sets up a vain, chimerical ideal, in the barren pursuit of which all the tender, indulgent affections, all the genial play of life, all the exquisite pleasures and soft resignations of the body, all that enlarges and calms the soul are exchanged for what is harsh and void and negative. It encourages a stern and ignorant spirit of condemnation; it throws altogether out of gear the healthy movement of the conscience; it invents virtues which are sterile and cruel; it invents sins which are no sins at all, but which darken the heaven of innocent joy with futile clouds of remorse. There is something horrible, if we will bring ourselves to face it, in the fanaticism that can do nothing with this pathetic and fugitive existence of ours but treat it as if it were the uncomfortable ante-chamber to a palace which no one has explored and of the plan of which we know absolutely nothing.

6

Jesuits settle US abuse claims for $166 million

by behemot in

in one of the largest settlements in the roman catholic church's sweeping sex abuse scandal, an order of priests agreed yesterday to pay $166.1 million (103m) to hundreds of native americans and alaska natives who were abused at the order's schools around the northwestern us.. .

the jesuit order, called the oregon province of the society of jesus, has been accused of using its schools in remote villages and on reservations as dumping grounds for problem priests.. .

attorneys representing the mostly native american and alaskan native victims said the abuse added to the mistreatment already endured by these children, some of whom were forcibly removed from their homes to attend these schools.. .

behemot

In one of the largest settlements in the Roman Catholic church's sweeping sex abuse scandal, an order of priests agreed yesterday to pay $166.1 million (£103m) to hundreds of Native Americans and Alaska Natives who were abused at the order's schools around the northwestern US.

The Jesuit order, called the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, has been accused of using its schools in remote villages and on reservations as dumping grounds for problem priests.

Attorneys representing the mostly Native American and Alaskan Native victims said the abuse added to the mistreatment already endured by these children, some of whom were forcibly removed from their homes to attend these schools.

The settlement between the more than 450 victims and the province also calls for a written apology to the victims and disclosure of documents to them, including their medical records.

"It's a day of reckoning and justice," said Clarita Vargas, 51, who alleges she and her two sisters were abused by the head of St. Mary's Mission and School, a former Jesuit-run Indian boarding school on the Colville Indian Reservation near Omak, Washington state, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The abuse began when they were as young as 6 or 7, she said. "My spirit was wounded, and this makes it feel better."

St. Mary's now operates as Paschal Sherman Indian School and is run by the Colville Tribe.

The province ran village and reservation schools in Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The claims are from victims who were students at schools in all five states.

The Very Rev. Patrick Lee, speaking for the Oregon Province, said the organization would not comment on the settlement announcement because of its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, "as well as out of respect for the judicial process and all involved."

He said the province hopes to conclude the bankruptcy process as quickly as possible.

The province previously settled another 200 claims. Then it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, claiming the payments had depleted its treasury.

An issue that surfaced when the bankruptcy proceedings got under way was the relationship between the province and other Jesuit properties, such as Gonzaga University. Attorneys for the victims initially argued the province was wealthy because it controls and owns Gonzaga, along with Gonzaga Preparatory School, Seattle University and other schools and properties.

Both Gonzaga and the Jesuit order maintain they are separate entities, and victims' attorneys did not pursue the issue during bankruptcy negotiations. Neither Gonzaga nor the other schools are contributing to the settlement announced yesterday.

California attorney John Manly, who represented some of the abuse victims, contends the Jesuits knowingly put molesters in a position to abuse children.

"It wasn't an accident. The evidence showed they did it on purpose and it was rape," Manly said.

He added he was certain not all the victims have come forward, and he believes the pattern of abuse among Catholic priests continues.

Both the order and its insurers are paying into the settlement. About $6 million (£3.7m) of the settlement is being set aside for future claims.

Attorney Blaine Tamaki said the priest who molested Vargas and about 100 other children has not been charged with a crime because the statute of limitations in Washington state is so restrictive. A bill before the state's 2011 Legislature would remove that statute of limitations.

The settlement is believed to be the Catholic Church's third-largest in the sex abuse cases, behind the Los Angeles Diocese, which agreed to pay $660 million to 508 victims, and the San Diego Diocese, which agreed to pay $198 million to 144 victims, according to the website BishopAccountability.org.

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jesuits-settle-us-abuse-claims-for-166-million-2253708.html