MONTANA
Ravalli Republic
Associated Press
HELENA – An attorney representing dozens of Native Americans in one of two sex-abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena said he hopes a new pope will mean a new approach by the church in dealing with victims.
But Pope Francis appears to be a conservative in a time when more transparency is needed, lawyer Blaine Tamaki said Thursday.
“We are very concerned the church needs to have a pope who is more progressive than they have had in the past, and the new pope appears to be one of those keeping the conservative doctrine of the Catholic church in place,” he said.
Tamaki’s clients claim they were sexually abused by nuns and priests in western Montana from the 1940s to the 1970s. That lawsuit has been combined with another that claims the Helena diocese covered up abuse for decades, and there now are more than 300 plaintiffs involved in the suits.
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