{"id":3102,"date":"2011-03-29T17:26:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T00:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2011-03-29T19:48:48","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T02:48:48","slug":"audio-st-johns-abbey-settles-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/audio-st-johns-abbey-settles-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"AUDIO: St. John&#8217;s Abbey Settles Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday&#8217;s announcement came as little surprise to former St. John&#8217;s student Patrick Marker. Marker, who graduated from the school in 1983, reported alleged abuse at the hands of a monk in 1989 and was among the initial whistleblowers who pushed the school to admit to the abuses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;Abbot Klassen told others that my claims that more victims would come forward and more monks would be named were false &#8212; absolutely false, he said,&#8221; Marker said. &#8220;Today proves that what I say isn&#8217;t false, and I&#8217;m not the liar and I&#8217;m not the one trying to deceive people as they would have others believe.&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webwiseforradio.com\/site_files\/508\/Media\/032811%20StJohns-Marker%20full%2064.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Listen (.mp3)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>St. John&#8217;s Abbey, Prep School settle lawsuit with sex abuse victims<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>ST. PAUL, Minn. (KNSI, AP) &#8211; A lawsuit settlement was announced Monday in the case of nine alleged victims of sexual abuse by clergy with Collegeville&#8217;s St. John&#8217;s Prep School, St. John&#8217;s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict.<\/p>\n<p>The accused clergy all taught at St. John&#8217;s Preparatory School or were assigned to parishes, attorney Jeff Anderson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These survivors have required St. John&#8217;s and St. John&#8217;s Abbey and the Order as a part of this settlement are committed to doing a better job of protecting the kids in the future,&#8221; Anderson said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- LETTER: Read the letter naming 17 St. John's priests or monks with credible allegations of sexual abuse\nORDER: Read the non-monetary points agreed to by St. John's as part of the settlement agreement\nPHOTOS: See the pictures of priests and monks named in the allegation\n\nAnderson said discussing the monetary portion of the settlement takes away from the important changes undertaken as a result of the suit, but said the settlements averaged in the \"six figure\" range.\n\nThe alleged abuse occurred from the 1960s to 2004.\n\nINTERVIEW: Attorney Jeff Anderson talks about St. John's sex abuse settlement; 3\/28\/11\n\n\"Some have been known before and are currently on restriction. One is dead,\" Anderson said. \"And two are names that have not been known before or made known.\"\n\nThe settlement requires St. John's to send a letter to anyone who attended the prep school, disclosing the names of alleged offenders against minors, Anderson said.\n\nAnderson distributed a draft of the letter \u2014 which names 17 priests and abbots \u2014 to reporters on Monday. Anderson said he expected Abbot John Klassen, who heads the monastery, to sign the letter according to the terms of the settlement.\n\nNone of the men accused in the lawsuits still works at the school and none has ever been criminally charged, Anderson said.\n\n\"In all cases, because the superiors and top officials did not deal with it and or report it when it happened or when they learned of it, the criminal statute of limitations seem to have expired,\" Anderson said.\n\nIt also frees other people who filed other lawsuits to talk publically, lifting gag orders imposed in previous settlements, he said.\n\n\"They all broke the silence, found their voice, took action and have all begun a process of recovery of power because of it,\" Anderson said. \"As soon as more come forward, more progress gets made every time they do. I would say we are at the tip of an iceberg and hopefully, it's a tipping point   and we're tipping in the right direction.\"\n\nUnder the settlement, the alleged abusers can also be named.  Anderson said of the 17 different points that the victims felt were issued to the Abbey as necessary to protect further kids, St. John's accepted six.\n\nBased in St. Paul, Anderson has spent three decades filing thousands of sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church in the U.S. and Europe.\n\nINTERVIEW: Former St. John's student, abuse victim Patrick Marker discusses Monday's settlement impact; 3\/28\/11\n\nMonday's announcement came as little surprise to former St. John's student Patrick Marker. Marker, who graduated from the school in 1983, reported alleged abuse at the hands of a monk in 1989 and was among the initial whistleblowers who pushed the school to admit to the abuses. \"Abbot Klassen told others that my claims that more victims would come forward and more monks would be named were false   absolutely false, he said,\" Marker said. \"Today proves that what I say isn't false, and I'm not the liar and I'm not the one trying to deceive people as they would have others believe.\" At his website Behind the Pine Curtin, Marker recounts nearly 250 cases of St. John's students alleging abuse at the hands of priests or monks with cases dating back to the 1920s. \"This problem is much bigger than people believe and it's much bigger than St. John's certainly would like people to know about,\" Marker said. \"For every person who does come forward, there are six to 10 who don't. When you look at those numbers and you look at the 250-plus victims that I'm aware of, just on the low end, we're talking over 1,000 victims of misconduct. That's just scary.\" Following his public suit against St. John's, Marker was appointed to the school's External Review Board in 2002.  He resigned in 2006 after he alleges board members supported Abbot Klassen's request to keep information about clergy abuse from reaching the public. Marker said full disclosure of abuses as well as the cover-ups seeking to maintain the veil of secrecy surrounding those allegations is the only way for former victims   as well as St. John's itself   to recover. \"I truly believe that the integrity of St. John's Abbey and St. John's University and St. John's Prep School can be restored. I don't think it can be restored without full disclosure,\" Marker said. \"St. John's has a lot of work to do and unless the members of the community hold them accountable, that integrity will not and can not be restored.\" A spokesman for the abbey did not return multiple phone calls for comment Monday. --><\/p>\n<p>Read Full Article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.1450knsi.com\/page.php?page_id=40753&amp;article_id=6665\" target=\"_blank\">Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>St. John&#8217;s Abbey, Prep School settle lawsuit with sex abuse victims<br \/>\nAM 1450 KNSI<br \/>\nMarch 28, 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday&#8217;s announcement came as little surprise to former St. John&#8217;s student Patrick Marker. Marker, who graduated from the school in 1983, reported alleged abuse at the hands of a monk in 1989 and was among the initial whistleblowers who pushed &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/audio-st-johns-abbey-settles-lawsuit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,64,145,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jeff-anderson","category-pat-marker","category-settlement-information","category-st-johns-prep","wp-image-borders"],"views":1115,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3102"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3154,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}