{"id":3997,"date":"2011-06-05T18:20:58","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T01:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2015-11-24T16:49:49","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T00:49:49","slug":"abbot-kelly-covered-up-misconduct-by-fr-gillespie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/abbot-kelly-covered-up-misconduct-by-fr-gillespie\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbot Kelly Covered Up Misconduct by Fr. Gillespie"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Update: On November 24, 2015, files were released with information about this matter. Please view the update… Here<\/a> ]\n

When Fr. Thomas Gillespie was yanked from the Catholic church in Saint Joseph, Minnesota on February 23, 1996, replacement priest Fr. Dan Ward and Abbot Timothy Kelly refused to provide an honest answer \u2014 the real reason \u2014 for Fr. Gillespie\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

The reason provided by St. John\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming duties as temporary administrator of the parish in Saint Joseph, MN, is Father Daniel Ward. The former pastor, Father Thomas Gillespie, is on sabbatical to take care of some health problems.\u201d\u00a0Abbey Banner (Winter, 1996)<\/p>\n

Some parishioners, absent the truth, were left to believe that a 1992 abuse allegation (by another parish employee), a recent suicide in the parish, or the disappearance of Jacob Wetterling might have been too much for Fr. Gillespie to handle. Poor Fr. Tom\u2026<\/p>\n

When the parishioners finally received an official answer, from Abbot John Klassen in 2002, many of the details were missing. The Abbot reportedly claimed that Gillespie was pulled because of an allegation of abuse that occurred in a different parish, many years earlier.<\/p>\n

In truth, Fr. Tom Gillespie had at least four victims before arriving in St. Joseph and, during his time at the parish in St. Joseph, had at least one more. While wrestling with a 10 year old boy, Fr. Gillespie put his hands down the boy\u2019s pants. The people of St. Joseph, not just the few who attended the meeting with the Abbot deserved then, and deserve still today, to know that truth.<\/p>\n

Later, Abbot John Klassen delayed the announcement of Fr. Tom Gillespie\u2019s molestation of young boys for at least two reasons. First, Fr. Gillespie had spent time with Jacob Wetterling\u2019s family following Jacob\u2019s disappearance in 1989. The abbey could not afford to have Jacob\u2019s disappearance \u2014 or the suicide of a young parishioner, Christopher Klehr \u2014 linked to Fr. Gillespie\u2019s pedophilia.<\/p>\n

More: Misconduct in St. Joseph, MN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Update: On November 24, 2015, files were released with information about this matter. Please view the update… Here ] When Fr. Thomas Gillespie was yanked from the Catholic church in Saint Joseph, Minnesota on February 23, 1996, replacement priest Fr. … Continue reading →<\/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":[142,6,50,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dan-ward","category-john-klassen","category-thomas-gillespie","category-timothy-kelly","wp-image-borders"],"views":3254,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997","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=3997"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9376,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions\/9376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}