A Catholic priest abuse list includes the names of Jesuit clergy in Alaska who allegedly took advantage of remote locations to commit their crimes.

The Jesuits West released a report on Dec. 7 that implicates priests, volunteers and church employees who worked in 35 villages and towns throughout Alaska. The Catholic priest abuse list names the alleged offenders, the places they worked and the dates they allegedly committed sexual abuse.

The people accused of sexual abuse allegedly were able to get away with abusing children for years because the priests and other perpetrators worked in communities surrounded by wilderness with no oversight. Law enforcement was stretched thin in the rural communities where health care facilities were scarce. Children had few people to turn to, and no one such as a nurse or social worker was available to notice signs of abuse.

The Diocese of Fairbanks is the largest geographical diocese, covering more than 400,000 square miles in Alaska. Parishioners started to bring forth claims of sexual abuse in the early 2000s, and the Diocese of Fairbanks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2008. A total of $9.8 million was set aside during the bankruptcy reorganization to create a fund for more than 250 sexual assault victims.

As part of the bankruptcy’s terms, abuse victims were given a deadline of Dec. 2, 2008 to come forward. Victims kept calling even after the deadline. Some callers were not victims, but knew of victims who had committed suicide after being sexually abused by people they trusted.

Catholic Priest Abuse List Includes Revered Clergyman

According to the Anchorage Daily News, more than 300 known sexual assault victims have been found in rural villages where an unusually high number of accused clergy were stationed.

One of the esteemed and respected priests in Alaska was Rev. Rene Astruc. He was born in France, but spent most of his life working with the Yup’ik people, one of 11 native Alaskan cultures.

When Astruc died in 2002, he was still a revered member of the Jesuit West community. However, Astruc is now one of 33 people on the Jesuit West Catholic priest abuse list, which says there are “credible claims” Astruc sexually preyed upon teen girls for more than 30 years. He served as the superintendent of a Catholic boarding school and allegedly committed sexual assaults from the 1960s through the mid-1980s. Astruc’s name also appears on the list of offenders from the bankruptcy settlement.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the diocese now lists 338 allegations of sexual abuse by 47 priests or other people affiliated with the church. The Jesuits say they released the list for the sake of transparency, but nearly all of the clergy members named on the Catholic priest abuse list are dead and did not face any charges of abuse.

Several lawsuits have accused the Jesuits of sending pedophile priests to remote Alaskan destinations where they could prey upon children without interference from law enforcement or health care workers.