Here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\u201cWe asked Father Andert to step back from public ministry and from his work until an investigation is completed,\u201d said abbey spokesman Aelred Senna in an e-mail.<\/p>\n
Andert, who was ordained in 1975, held key positions at the abbey, St. John\u2019s University and a Twin Cities Catholic school. He was president of Benilde-St. Margaret\u2019s School in St. Louis Park from 1981 to 1987, during which time he also served as associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in St. Louis Park.<\/p>\n
He was headmaster of St. John\u2019s Preparatory School from 1988 to 1994. He taught German in St. John\u2019s Preparatory School and the university. He also served as the academic advising director for St. John\u2019s University.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s Abbey, home to more than 150 Benedictine monks, is part of a sprawling campus that includes St. John\u2019s University and the prep school. In 2013, it identified 18 clergy credibly accused of child sex abuse. But victims\u2019 advocates say the number is higher and reflects abuse going back decades.<\/p>\n
Former monk Richard Sipe, chairman of the abbey\u2019s Interfaith Sex and Trauma Institute in 1995 and 1996, said that a student reported to him at the time that Andert was sexually abusing him. Sipes said he reported it to then-Abbott Timothy Kelley, \u201cwho dismissed it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Sipe, who has been a consultant or expert witness on more than 200 cases of sex abuse against minors, said he was baffled as to why the abbey was removing Andert at this time. The abbey has had \u201cwell documented\u201d evidence about the abuse of the other student for years, including letters from Andert to the young man.<\/p>\n
That young man committed suicide in December, he said.<\/p>\n
Senna said the new accusation did not contain many details. The accuser was referred to a victim\u2019s advocate and offered support for counseling.<\/p>\n
David Clohessey, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, urged other victims from St. John\u2019s to step forward and report their abuse to law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Stearns County law enforcement has no record of receiving a report on the Andert accusation, said Lt. Jon Lentz of the Stearns County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Bradley Jenniges was named interim prior of the monastery. The abbey will not release further information \u201cin fairness to all involved and because the complainant requested strict confidentiality,\u2019\u2019 Senna said.<\/p>\n
Read the Entire Article and View Comments… Here<\/a><\/p>\nLongtime leader at St. John’s Abbey accused of sex abuse
\nJean Hopfensperger
\nStar Tribune
\nAugust 20, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(StarTribune) The Rev. Thomas Andert, the prior at St. John\u2019s Abbey in Collegeville, has been removed from his leadership position following an allegation of student sex abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,507,101,10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aelred-senna","category-bradley-jenniges","category-david-clohessy","category-aw-richard-sipe","category-tom-andert","wp-image-borders"],"views":1220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","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=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9251,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions\/9251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}