(PBS) 2002 St. John’s Abbey Settlement

Posted on October 18, 2002
Posted in Jeff Anderson

(PBS) BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: One famous Catholic center that has tried to balance the rights of victims against the rights of accused priests is St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. As members of the Benedictine order, those there are not covered by the U.S. Bishops’ rules, but are responsible to the Vatican. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how St. John’s has responded to sex abuse complaints.
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StarTribune Opinion Page

Posted on October 7, 2002
Posted in Dolores Schuh, John Klassen, Opinion, Timothy Kelly

There was nothing new in your Sept. 29 story about St. John’s Abbey, “Behind the pine curtain.” We have read it all before in the Star Tribune and other Minnesota newspapers. I’m afraid the Star Tribune has succumbed to sensationalism and poor journalism just to sell papers, regardless of the hurt and harm to so very many good people at St. John’s.

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St. John’s Monk Takes Leave after Conduct Concerns

Posted on October 5, 2002
Posted in BS, Dietrich Reinhart, Isaac Connolly, John Klassen, William Skudlarek

Brother Isaac Connolly, a former dean of students at St. John’s University, took a leave from the St. John’s Abbey after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced this spring, the campus community learned Wednesday.
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Letter to the editor

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in Opinion, ToDo

Having moved to “the country” a few years ago, I look forward to your Sunday paper for a good read. Sept. 29 was an exception.

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Abbey Seeks to Build on Foundation of Healing and Renewal

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in ISTI, Jerome Hanus, John Klassen, LINKUP, Timothy Kelly

Oct. 2, 2002 — It was distressing for me and for all friends of Saint John’s Abbey to read once again in the Minneapolis Star Tribune an account of the abusive, sinful acts of some members of the monastic community. While I do not agree with some of the conclusions drawn or implied in the article, it would accomplish little to engage in a debate over these differences.

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St. John’s Abbey, abuse victims agree to settlement

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in David Clohessy, Jeff Anderson, John Klassen, SNAP

Collegeville — Gathered on the very grounds where monks of St. John’s Abbey sexually abused them, past victims Tuesday embraced reparations they hope will become a model for the Roman Catholic Church.
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Abbey promises change

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in David Clohessy, Jeff Anderson, John Klassen, Review Board, SNAP

Collegeville – Expressing his sorrow to victims who had been sexually abused by St. John’s Abbey monks, Abbot John Klassen outlined Tuesday a far-reaching settlement that ensures that new abuse allegations against monks will be reported to an outside investigative review board.
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To clergy victims, acknowledgment proves invaluable

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in Allen Tarlton, Andre Bennett, Brennan Maiers, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Craig Martin, David Clohessy, Dunstan Moorse, Finian McDonald, Fran Hoefgen, Francisco Schulte, Isaac Connolly, John Eidenschink, John Kelly, John Klassen, Review Board, Richard Eckroth, SNAP, Thomas Gillespie

Collegeville – An apology, validation and a promise to ensure sexual abuse won’t happen to another child or adult. These, for many survivors of clergy sexual abuse, are far more important than financial settlement.
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Settlement creates nonclergy review board

Posted on October 2, 2002
Posted in Dunstan Moorse, Jeff Anderson, John Klassen, Review Board, Robert Stich

Collegeville – St. John’s Abbey will create an external review board and pay an undisclosed amount to about a dozen victims of clergy sex abuse as part of a settlement announced Tuesday.

Victims, their attorney and abbey officials said the key to the unprecedented agreement is the abbey’s willingness to accept responsibility for past abuse and to work to prevent future abuse. They hailed the review board as a model for religious orders, dioceses and churches nationwide.
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Statement by Abbot John Klassen, OSB

Posted on October 1, 2002
Posted in Jeff Anderson, John Klassen, Review Board, Settlement Information

Collegeville, Minn. — Today Saint John’s Abbey is announcing a settlement agreement that is the result of several months of intensive negotiation between Saint John’s Abbey and Jeffrey Anderson in his role as legal representative of victims of sexual abuse by members of the monastic community.
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Monk Regrets Sexual Abuse

Posted on September 30, 2002
Posted in Fran Hoefgen

(SC Times) One of the monks living under restrictions at St. John’s Abbey has issued a written apology for his actions.

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A broken trust, a sense of shame

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Dunstan Moorse

One morning in 1995, when the guilt became too heavy, Bill Quenroe says, he steered his van into the garage, threw it into park and left the engine running. He had already written a note, and now he waited for the end.
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Decades Of Abuse And Secrecy At St. John’s Abbey

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Allen Tarlton, Andre Bennett, Brennan Maiers, Columba Stewart, Dunstan Moorse, Fran Hoefgen, Francisco Schulte, Jeff Anderson, Jerome Thiesen, John Eidenschink, John Klassen, Pat Marker, Richard Eckroth, Richard Sipe, Robert Stich, SG

As allegations of sex abuse and coverup in the Catholic Church shook the nation this year, St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., confronted its own dark past. Former students came forward, some for the first time, to talk about what went on behind the Pine Curtain, the rows of conifers that surround the campus. Reporters Paul McEnroe and Pam Louwagie spent several months investigating reports of a sexual subculture that flourished there for decades.
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A Family’s Faith Was Shaken After Their Sons Were Abused

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Cosmas Dahlheimer, Richard Eckroth

From baptism to first communion to weddings, Ray and Arlene Vogel marked their family’s milestones through their faith.

It defined the life they created in the house across the street from St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in St. Cloud.
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A Homily by Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Columba Stewart

Responding to Sexual Misconduct at Saint John’s… Some years ago a few of us monks who work in Abbey liturgy were looking at the opening line of a favorite Lenten hymn. The text read: “Turn back, O man, foreswear thy foolish ways.” We wanted to make the language more gender-inclusive. One of my confreres piped up and said, “how about ‘Turn back… and forth?’” He was right: it’s more honest. How our lives are littered with false starts and broken promises. Even good intentions quickly fade or slowly wither. Jesus knew, just as we do, that talk is cheap. That was the fault of the second son in today’s gospel. He seemed like an eager-beaver when asked by Dad to work in the vineyard, but somehow didn’t manage to get there. Something came up, he didn’t feel like it, he was irritated that his brother said he wouldn’t go. Whatever. The difference between the brothers was not their words, but their follow-through.

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11 monks on restriction; 2 on leave of absence

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Allen Tarlton, Andre Bennett, Brennan Maiers, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Dunstan Moorse, Finian McDonald, Fran Hoefgen, Francisco Schulte, Isaac Connolly, John Eidenschink, John Kelly, Richard Eckroth, Thomas Gillespie

Under St. John’s policy, monks on restriction are to have no pastoral or teaching duties or unsupervised social contact with young people. They are not allowed to work in the prep school or university, use most campus facilities, or serve in parishes. They may not travel without permission. Some have been allowed limited travel.
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St. John’s Monk Apologizes For Sex Abuse

Posted on September 29, 2002
Posted in Fran Hoefgen

One of the more than a dozen monks and priests living under restrictions at St. John’s Abbey has issued a written apology for his actions, the St. Cloud Times reported. The Rev. Francis Hoefgen, 52, accused of sexually abusing a troubled teenager in the early 1980s in Cold Spring, Minn., had his apology published in the Sunday Star Tribune.

Apology from Fr. Fran Hoefgen, O.S.B

Posted on September 27, 2002
Posted in Fran Hoefgen

“For one child to ever suffer – that is the most horrible thing I can think of.” – Ray Vogel, who says three of his four sons were abused by priests from St. John’s Abbey.

On Friday, the abbey released an apology from one of the monks on restriction. The apology is printed in its entirety:
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Remarks by President Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB

Posted on September 27, 2002
Posted in Dietrich Reinhart, ToDo

There is news today that Saint John’s Abbey has settled all of the cases of sexual abuse brought forward by attorney Jeffrey Anderson. Abbot John intends to make full announcement early next week in a joint press conference with Jeffrey Anderson. We also know that there will be a very extensive article in this Sunday’s Star Tribune, which we are given to believe may frame the actions of the Abbey positively, but will go quite deeply into the facts of allegations and cases stretching back many decades.

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Abuse Victims, Abbey Settle Claims

Posted on September 27, 2002
Posted in Columba Stewart, Jeff Anderson, Robert Stich

Victims of sexual abuse by monks from St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., have reached a broad financial settlement with the abbey, attorney Jeff Anderson said Thursday.
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