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  Another Former Alaska Priest Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Megan Baldino
KTUU.com Channel 2
October 20, 2005

Anchorage, Alaska - A Jesuit superior, Rev. John Whitney, describes a recent string of clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed against his order as "a tough time."

Another Jesuit, Rev. James Laudwein, is accused of abusing a young woman in Alaska in 1980. According to Whitney, Laudwein also fathered a child in Alaska.

According to a lawsuit filed in Bethel today, in 1980, a woman only identified as "Jana Doe" was sexually abused by Laudwein in the confessional in St. Marys School chapel.

Whitney declined to comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it yet, but admitted that Laudwein had a child in Alaska in an unrelated incident. He says Laudwein, who now about 75 years old, still ministers in Portland, Ore., mainly working with the poor.

In addition to Laudwein and the Jesuits, the Diocese of Fairbanks is named as a defendant. The plaintiff is seeking $50,000 or more in damages.

 
 

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