August 9, 2006
Dear Abbot Klassen:
Founded in 1989, SNAP is a 7000+ member support group for women and men who have been wounded by sexually abusive priests, nuns, seminarians and bishops. We are the largest and oldest such self-help group dedicated to healing the wounded and protecting the vulnerable.
Read More
COLLEGEVILLE – A member of the St. John’s monastic community continued to work at St. John’s Preparatory School for five years after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
Read More
The names have been added to the list of St. John’s Abbey clerics who have faced allegations of sexual abuse recently or in the more distant past. The names of three priests accused of sexual misconduct, primarily in the 1970s and ’80s, have been released by St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., abbey officials said Wednesday.
Read More
The offender responsible for Joshua Guimond’s disappearance, if foul play is involved, would have the following personal characteristics: above average intelligence; socially competent, with good interpersonal skills; employed in a skilled occupation; high birth order status (e.g., first-born son); a poor relationship with his father, who humiliated him in childhood; a childhood history of inconsistent discipline; a reliable means of transportation, most likely a late-model car in good condition; and a precipitating situational stress prior to the victim’s disappearance. More… The offender would be considerably older than traditional-age college students. He would be very familiar with the college campus from which the victim disappeared; it would be part of his territory, his comfort zone. He likely would be familiar with the schedules of campus buses and security officers and would know whether the campus has surveillance cameras and where they are located.
Read More
COLLEGEVILLE – New allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced Friday against three members of the St. John’s monastic community. The Revs. Michael Bik, Bruce Wollmering and the late Rev. Robert Blumeyer were named in a statement by the abbey based on an annual review board report to Abbot John Klassen.
Read More
What better time than this year of the 475 anniversary of the apparitions of Santa María de Guadalupe to San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. A group of experts will be present in the Capuchin church where Congress will take place from 26 to 28 July: Ana Rita Valero, Francisco Shulte, Eduardo Chavez, Fidel González Fernández, Fernando Ojeda Llanes, Arturo Rocha, among others.
Source: http://www.virgendeguadalupe.org.mx/noticias/IV%20Congreso/congreso_06.htm
“An anniversary is a time to recall the past and celebrate whatever merits celebrating and reconcile whatever needs reconciling. But more importantly, it is a time to turn toward the future… At this time, I would rather dream of the possibilities for the future than dwell on the problems of the past.” – Sister Nancy Bauer (June 24, 2006)
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. — Three reverends of St. John University’s collegiate community were named in allegations of sexual misconduct Friday. According to a statement by the abbey, Rev. Michael Bik, 57, and Rev. Bruce Wollmering, 65, were named as being instigators of inappropriate sexual acts. – St. Cloud State (MN) – UniversityChronicle.com
St. John’s Abbey is asking those who have been victimized by a former St. Cloud pastor to come forward after last year’s revelations of sexual abuse in the St. Cloud diocese.
Read More
The following is a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and St. John’s Abbey, dated April 27, 2006.
In September, 2005, a 50-year-old man informed the Victim Advocate of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that he was sexually abused as a young man by the late Father Robert Blumeyer, O.S.B., a priest of the Saint’s John’s monastic community. The report has been deemed credible.
Read More
“My dear friends, far and near…. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the death of my Mom in her sleep during last evening (April 2nd). As most of you know she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease for the past 5 years, though in the fall she was re-diagnosed with something called Lewey Body dementia, a blend of Parkinson’s and Alzeheimer’s.
Read More
I write first of all to you who participated in the recent settlement with the Archdiocese. I also write to your spouses and to the members of your families. In addition, I include all survivors who as minors suffered sexual abuse perpetrated by any Church personnel.
Francisco Schulte, OSB is a Benedictine monk on the staff of the Abbot Primate in Rome. He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology (Spirituality) from the …
On the streets of every city in America there are thousands of children, both boys and girls, selling themselves into prostitution. Almost nothing is done to discourage this. Some of these children are on their own, others are preyed upon by older children who exploit them. Surrounding and controlling these children, who have been manipulated and forced into utter physical, sexual, and emotional degradation in their daily lives, are their procurers and abusers who are even more depraved. It is these procurers and abusers who criminally and sexually exploit these children for commercial purposes: pornography, prostitution, extortion, blackmail, and human compromise; not to mention larceny, burglary, and other criminal activities.
Read More
Collegeville – A priest at St. John’s University said he was resigning his leadership position because of the Vatican’s latest statement that homosexuals should be barred from entering the Roman Catholic priesthood.
I met with Fr. O’Connell and Andrew Ritten at about 4:00 P.M. at the Dunn Brothers coffee shop on Loring Park. I thanked him for meeting me and mentioned that up to that point, Fr. Kevin McDonough and Fr. Dale Korogi had not been willing to meet with me. I asked if he would start us with a prayer and he did. Then I told him I wanted to start the meeting assuming we were brothers and asked if we could exchange some personal history. I also asked if Mr. Ritten was a Catholic brother or if he was acting as his attorney. Mr. Ritten said they did not have an attorney-client relationship. After we exchanged “biographies,” Fr. O’Connell and I did almost all of the talking. I explained a couple of stories about my sons, one of whom went to a priest in northeast Minneapolis asking for a spiritual advisor a few months before. He was referred to Fr. Fran Hoefgen, a St. John’s priest who had admitted abuse of a fifteen-year-old in a counseling situation many years ago. Read More
The abduction and murder of 15-year-old Mary Reker and her 12-year-old sister Susan remains one of the most heinous unsolved crimes in state history. It happened on Labor Day 1974. The girls were missing for a month before their bodies were found, stabbed, at a rock quarry north of St. Cloud. The case has always stood out as much for the nature of the crimes as for the bungling of the investigation.
It was a frigid November night when he vanished from SJU without leaving his glasses, his coat or any solid clues to his whereabouts behind.
Three years and a day later, Joshua Guimond is still missing.
Read More
Three years later, there is still no sign of Joshua Guimond, the St. John’s University student who vanished from campus shortly after midnight on Nov. 10, 2002.
Read More
