After more than eight years of covering up credible allegations of sexual abuse by one of its members, a source at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN has admitted that Br. Jim Phillips is a “Monk Under Supervision”.

Br. Jim Phillips in mid-1970′s

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“This website and the effort by Pat Marker is one of the most significant achievements in child protection in the country, in terms of dissemination of information and speaking and telling the stories,” Jeff Anderson – May 19, 2010

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On Wednesday evening, Minneapolis television station Fox9 [ Link ] will air a report on Br. Jim Phillips, a monk at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.

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Below is the text from several love letters that Father Tom Andert wrote to a minor student in 1994. At the time the letters were written, Fr. Andert was the principal at St. John’s Prep School in Collegeville, MN.

Despite the Abbey’s knowledge of this and other inappropriate behavior by Fr. Tom Andert, he is now the prior at St. John’s Abbey/Monastery. Fr. Andert also held a spot on the Abbey’s External Review Board, which was created as a result of a 2002 settlement with victims of abuse. The public was told that the Board was created, in part, to monitor activity of members of the St. John’s community who acted inappropriately.
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St. John’s monk Fr. Finian McDonald is currently “on restriction” at St. John’s Abbey. Restricted monks cannot have personal web sites. Abbot John Klassen, however, is known for his relaxed approach to the enforcement of the actual restrictions placed on monks at the Abbey.
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“The abbey’s own statements reflect knowledge of Schulte’s misconduct since 1992. The fact that the abbey has failed to reach out to victims of Schulte even while calling on victims of other monks to come forward represents unprecedented deception and hypocrisy.”

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(SC Times) COLLEGEVILLE — St. John’s Abbey publications and newspaper articles from the 1990s on contradict the abbey’s own statement about the whereabouts and work history of the Rev. Francisco Schulte after the abbey received an allegation of sexual misconduct against him.

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On May 16, 2010, Fr. Brennan Maiers, a restricted monk at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, was filmed outside the Abbey church stalking a potential victim. He pretends to read a book (turning pages in wrong direction) then puts the book away when he moves closer to his prey. Fr. Maiers is a known pedophile and, according to Abbot John Klassen, is supposed to be under supervision. He clearly is not. St. John’s Prep School, approximately two hundred yards away from the church, is home to students as young as eleven years old.

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(SC Times) The former St. John’s Prep School student had occasionally tried to find information about the Rev. Francisco Schulte in the years since he was an altar boy at a North Carolina church where Schulte had once served.
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Announcement of a lawsuit to be filed on Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court against Collegeville, Minnesota-based St. John’s Preparatory School, St, John’s Abbey, the Order of St. Benedict and Father Raymond Francisco Schulte, a minister at the school. The lawsuit stems from the alleged recruiting, grooming and subsequent sexual abuse and exploitation of two minor students (aged 12 and 14) by Father Schulte between 1984 and 1986 in North Carolina and Minnesota. (more…)

POR QUE: Ess el anuncio de una demanda por radicarse el martes en el
juzgado del Distrito del Condado Ramsey contra St. John’s Preparatory
School en Collegeville, Minnesota, la St. John’s Abbey, la Order of
St. Benedict y el padre Raymond Francisco Schulte, anteriormente
profesor y pastor en dicha escuela. (more…)

Br. Isaac Connolly, a monk at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN recently took down his Facebook page [ Link ] after it was featured in the new “Meet the Monks” section on the Behind the Pine Curtain web site ( http://www.behindthepinecurtain.com ). The Facebook account was public for over three months.
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Today (November 10, 2009) marks the seven year anniversary of Joshua Guimond’s disappearance from the St. John’s University campus in Collegeville, Minnesota.
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Rev. Jonathan Licari is now the pastor at Church of the Seven Dolors in Albany MN. Licari is listed as the pastor for Holy Family School as well.
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Wollmering’s room searched by County officials.

Wollmering’s Victim Count Now 6

Father Wollmering’s obituary references his “retirement” from his position as teacher and counselor at St. John’s University.
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St. John’s Abbey Benedictine establishment at Collegeville, MN, the largest Benedictine monastery in the western world, adjacent to St. John’s University and St. John’s Preparatory School. At least 14 of the abbey’s nearly 200 monks have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
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A St. John’s Abbey priest whose role on a review board brought criticism last month hasn’t served on the board since early 2007, according to a letter issued this week by the leader of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville.
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A Twin Cities-based lawyer is calling for a St. John’s Abbey monk to be removed from an external review board that examines clergy abuse because he says the monk was once involved with sexual misconduct.
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Collegeville, Minn. — Rita Prince and Terry Ryan stood beneath the massive concrete bell tower at St. John’s University in Collegeville, clutching a picture of their brother. In the 1960s-era photo, Patrick Ryan is dressed smartly in a black suit, his reddish-brown hair swept to the side.
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SHOREVIEW – A national support group for people molested by clergy plans to pass out leaflets in protest today outside a Shoreview church where a Collegeville monk worked for two years.
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In 2002, under pressure of publicity and threatened lawsuits, the Abbey finally acknowledged “creditable accusations” of abuse – enacted over decades – against 13 monks. Anxious to keep the cases out of court, it negotiated a settlement with the victims’ lawyer that avoided the criminal justice system. Patrons of the first handwritten and illuminated Bible since the invention of the printing press now function under the eye of a lay watchdog panel.
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A former Minnesota man who was a 1983 victim of sexual abuse at St. John’s Preparatory School in Collegeville, MN is challenging local Catholic officials to explain why they shared a nine year silence about abuse allegations against a priest. He is also requesting that leaders with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and St. John’s Abbey take immediate steps to notify all potential victims of the cleric and former teacher.
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The latest round of sexual misconduct allegations involving Catholic clergy with ties to Central Minnesota hinges on two very familiar themes – truth and trust.
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BehindthePineCurtain.com was launched by Pat Marker in 2002 as the “Abuse Disclosure Project.” It was taken down by the former St. John’s Preparatory School student and clergy molestation victim when he joined the St. John’s Abbey external review board. Marker resigned from the board Friday. The Web site was relaunched Wednesday under a new name, billed as a resource for people interested in the history of sexual abuse and misconduct in Collegeville.
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In 1997, the Archdiocese and Abbey learned of allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Michael Bik. The public and potential victims should have been notified. They were not and Fr. Michael Bik continued his work at St. John’s Prep School.
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