{"id":151,"date":"2007-11-04T23:13:15","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T07:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=151"},"modified":"2014-12-22T11:54:51","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T19:54:51","slug":"st-john%e2%80%99s-abbey-suffers-relapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/st-john%e2%80%99s-abbey-suffers-relapse\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s Abbey Suffers Relapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

There simply was no \u201cintensive internal investigation.\u201d Interrogation of a frightened teenager is not investigation. I received the following from a principle who was on the scene in 1994: \u201cHow can you have an investigation without anyone talking to us? We know that what we heard from (Ned) was clearly inappropriate behavior between a Headmaster and a student; Andert\u2019s actions were abusive. If they can\u2019t see that and act appropriately the Abbey has a big problem, and needs some outside help.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

St. John’s Abbey Suffers Relapse<\/p>\n

This article was completed on November 4, 2007. The former SJP student noted in this essay has vetted it along with the families involved. I quote them directly from their most recent statements and have reviewed my notes from the time of the first reports. This is an example of how complicated and long lasting are the effects of betrayal by the trusted. A sad aspect is the divided loyalties that gnaw at the hearts of good people. Secrecy feeds the fear, embarrassment and guilt for inappropriate clergy behavior. Catholic tradition records for centuries the problem of clerics who betray their trust and misuse their position of power. (Cf. Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes) Are there institutions of integrity and accountability to fight the problem from within?
\n
\nOn October 23, 2007 a priest spokesman for St. John\u2019s Abbey in Collegeville Minnesota issued, in part, the following statement to the St. Cloud Times:<\/p>\n

In 1994 third-party concerns were expressed about the friendship of Father Tom Andert, OSB, with a student. The concerns led to an intensive internal investigation. As part of the investigation the student was invited to the Abbey and, in an interview with Abbot Timothy Kelly, OSB, he categorically denied that any sexual misconduct had occurred. The investigation revealed no credible charges of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

That is not at all the whole story that has occasioned abuse victims\u2019 uproar after the Abbot John Klassen appointed Andert as a representative on the External Review Board overseeing misbehavior of monks and also Prior of the Abbey, that is, second-in-command of the institution celebrating its 150th anniversary of founding this year. The Abbot and lawyers created the External Review Board in 2002 as a protective mechanism to assure adequate oversight of behavior. It was a condition to an agreement when a raft of abuse cases were settled.<\/p>\n

What I have to say about this particular brouhaha at St. John\u2019s Benedictine monastery in Collegeville, Minnesota and the priests in this controversy is from my personal experience. That experience began in 1994 and continues to this day\u2014with the young man I will call Ned, his parents, the family he lived with after the events, Abbot Kelly, and as background, with four monastic superiors who have been acknowledged being actively inappropriate with people inside and outside the abbey community. It is the story of some men who profess to be celibate and present themselves and each other to be emotionally and sexually safe. But they are not safe. In fact, many are dangerous, especially to the welfare of the young and the vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u2014 There simply was no \u201cintensive internal investigation.\u201d Interrogation of a frightened teenager is not investigation. I received the following from a principle who was on the scene in 1994: \u201cHow can you have an investigation without anyone talking to us? We know that what we heard from (Ned) was clearly inappropriate behavior between a Headmaster and a student; Andert\u2019s actions were abusive. If they can\u2019t see that and act appropriately the Abbey has a big problem, and needs some outside help.\u201d<\/p>\n

My name is Richard Sipe. I served as the personnel director of St. John\u2019s Abbey from 1968-1970. I was also the elected Chair of the Board of the St. John\u2019s University Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute from 1994 to 1996. I have been a consultant or expert witness in several hundred cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy including cases in Boston and Los Angeles; and I have appeared as a trial witness in five states. I served as an advisor to the Attorney General\u2019s office of the State of Massachusetts and the District Attorney\u2019s Office of Philadelphia in preparation of grand jury investigations of sexual abuse of minors in their respective jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

I have spoken to all the principles in this case, save Abbot Kelly, in the days of October 23 to 29, 2007 and reviewed my records. This is more than the story of one adolescent boy and his headmaster. It is the story of a miasmic institution\u2014a story that concerns a holy place that maintains a whiff of a noxious atmosphere and has not yet found the way to rid itself of pollution.<\/p>\n

Ned insisted last week that his story is not one of gayness, and he is absolutely correct. The story is one of betrayal of celibacy and power.<\/p>\n

While I chaired ISTI a mother of two former Prep School students came to me with concerns over the behavior of Headmaster Fr. Thomas Andert. A Prep School student, Ned, was living with her family in St. Cloud for a semester of his senior year while his parents were located in another state.<\/p>\n

The young man had made a suicidal gesture during his junior year as a boarder at St. John\u2019s and spent several days in St. Cloud hospital for observation and psychiatric therapy. It was during this time that Fr. Andert first paid more attention to him, than was appropriate according to Ned\u2019s recollection and his father\u2019s latter estimation. Only later was Ned able to talk about the incidents; the housemother remembered Ned saying that Andert told him, \u201cyour problem is you are gay, but can\u2019t accept it.\u201d Much later when Ned was able to tell his father about the whole relationship he quoted Andert, \u201cWhen are you going to be ready to tell me you\u2019re gay?\u201d<\/p>\n

After his return to school the headmaster paid a great deal of attention to Ned for the rest of the semester. Andert took him to the Twin Cities and treated him to dinner and wine at an expensive restaurant (Ruth Chris) and cruised two gay bars with him. (According to one account given closer the time of the incident, his housemother recalled that Ned said they briefly entered one bar). The priest reassured Ned that it is \u201cOK to be gay\u201d and that he (Andert) was gay. At times Andert gave Ned liquor (scotch) in his private quarters, wrote him letters (that I have read) that affirmed his love. Were there affectionate touches\u2014neck rubs, back rubs, hands on thighs? Yes. More? That is Ned\u2019s story alone to tell.<\/p>\n

Ned\u2019s parents were oblivious of any improper dimension to the relationship and were grateful to Andert for the attention he gave their son during his trying semester. In gratitude they invited Andert to take a trip with them. In one hotel the parents shared a room and their son shared a room with Andert down the hall. According to the father\u2019s account: about one or two o\u2019clock in the morning Ned \u201cwas beating furiously on the door\u201d and burst into their room. They, not knowing anything about any sexual tension or conflict, tried to convince the boy to return to his room with the priest. The father told me that the boy refused to go back to the room and \u201ccried uncontrollably\u201d in his arms for several hours; Ned spent the rest of the night with his parents. Ned admits to some kind of trigger\u2014or \u201cvibe,\u201d in Ned\u2019s terms\u2014for his panic reaction. The day following this incident Andert, Ned, and his father went white water rafting. Ned\u2019s father was embarrassed by Ned\u2019s \u201crudeness\u201d to Andert and took him aside and scolded him for his behavior, still completely oblivious to the sinister dimensions to the relationship with his son.<\/p>\n

During the first semester of his senior year his housemother, also unaware of any trouble at school, noticed Ned became distraught and tense. She was supportive and listened to his concerns. With great difficulty, but over time Ned finally told her much of the story\u2014the trips, the liquor, and intimate approaches. He complained to her that Andert was E-mailing him in spite of Ned\u2019s requests to stop.<\/p>\n

Both \u2018foster\u2019 parents personally reported the behavior to Abbot Timothy Kelly. They felt (and were) dismissed.<\/p>\n

They were frustrated but the only advocates Ned had, since he would not yet share his concerns with his parents. They appealed to me to speak with Abbot Timothy once they heard my connection with the SJU Institute to combat abuse problems. I did. His response to me was glib, \u201cOh, he (Andert) may have a bit of a drinking problem.\u201d He did not take any of the report seriously, even that of a teacher giving alcohol to a minor.<\/p>\n

Ned became more anxious during the second semester of his senior year and moved to his grandmother\u2019s home in the same area; his mother came from her home in another state to be with Ned to support him while he finished his final year at SJP. It is important to remember that all of these families were \u201cJohnnies\u201d of several generations standing and substantial supporters of St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But Ned was finally able to share his concerns with his parents. Once Ned\u2019s parents heard his story they went to see Abbot Timothy. Their experience is still fresh and distasteful. Whether from information at this interview or from other sources, Abbot Timothy agreed to remove Andert from the prep school. As he assured the parents, he \u201cpatted\u201d Ned\u2019s mother on the head and said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, everything will be OK.\u201d She still shutters at the memory and finds the meeting \u201ccondescending.\u201d Ned and his parents felt intimidated and humiliated.<\/p>\n

Abbot Kelly appointed Andert prefect in the freshman college dorm.<\/p>\n

Ned\u2019s dad, an ardent long-time supporter of St. John\u2019s, was a class ahead of Andert when they were in Prep School. In hope\u2019s of smoothing the edges of the conflict of the demotion from headmaster, Ned\u2019s dad and mother invited Andert to supper at Pirate\u2019s Cove, an up scale restaurant in the area. Andert had a great deal to drink and told the parents that his new assignment was his \u201cperfect dream job.\u201d And it was\u2026\u201cto be a prefect in a college dorm; have his (my) desk across from the door of the showers where he (I) could watch the young tight white asses of the boys going in and out.\u201d The memory of that statement still haunts the parents.<\/p>\n

Ned\u2019s father met again with Kelly and told him: \u201cFrom what I have seen this man is a threat to students.\u201d He meant even college students. Kelly said, \u201cWhat do you expect me to do?\u201d Kelly in turn chided Ned\u2019s father for talking to me about the situation and continuing concern.<\/p>\n

After Kelly\u2019s indifference, his transfer of Andert simply to an older group of potential victims plus the lack of any response to several reports from other parents and even monks who turned to me for the same assistance I felt tremendous pressure. I had talked about all of it to Kelly in private. (Every private report was ignored and put down, even those later acknowledged and settled by the Abbey. No investigation.)<\/p>\n

Here I was Chair of a project set up and widely publicized to protect children and help eliminate dangers, first and foremost at St. John\u2019s, but the head of the institution turned a deaf and defiant ear to the information that I was relaying to him. I polled the Executive Committee of the ISTI board for advice. They seemed supportive of my determination to speak with Kelly openly in an Executive Board meeting on September 18, 1995. The reaction of Abbot Timothy Kelly can only be described as verbally violent and rejecting. \u201cI will not be manipulated,\u201d are some of his words I remember.<\/p>\n

Ned insists that his situation is not a question of homosexuality. He is correct. The crisis of Andert and St. John\u2019s is an ongoing crisis of power and betrayal. It is a crisis of celibacy-advertised-but-not-lived. It is a crisis of men in positions of power that betray their responsibility to students and others and refuse to be accountable.<\/p>\n

There was neither an intensive internal investigation conducted in Ned\u2019s case as Fr. Skudlarek claims\u2014my records show a great deal of intimidation\u2014nor was there an adequate investigation in several other cases I presented to Abbot Kelly; even those where, in the end, the Abbey admitted culpability and settled the complaints for substantial sums of money.<\/p>\n

Father Thomas Andert\u2019s behavior is not a matter of hearsay. Neither is the reported inappropriate behavior of more than 45 other monks hearsay\u201420 cases were mediated. There are more to be considered. Nor is it misleading, unverified, or false that Andert\u2019s appointment as the second in command of the monastery follows in a long tradition of superiors of the monastery who were non-celibately active. I have had the painful task of interviewing a number of people who suffered inappropriate friendships with former Abbot John Eidenschink and Novice Master, Cosmas Dahlheimer. Michael Blecker, former Rector of the Seminary and President of St. John\u2019s University was a guest in my home after he became HIV positive; my wife and I were supportive of him personally and visited him when he was in hospice. I reviewed his death certificate and spoke with the funeral director who embalmed him.<\/p>\n

At Halloween St. John\u2019s Abbey does not have to don scary costumes; it has plenty of frightful skeletons that can give the unwary the creeps.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that the Benedictines of Collegeville have not done much good in their century and a half of existence. They are telling that history well in their celebrations; and that part is true, too. But there is a much longer and painful historical account to be written. There are records. Suffice it to say that St. John\u2019s Abbey has not yet come to grips with the vapors from problems that still slither along its halls and endanger others as well as its own wellbeing.<\/p>\n

November 4, 2007<\/p>\n

A. W. Richard Sipe<\/p>\n

La Jolla, CA 92037<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There simply was no \u201cintensive internal investigation.\u201d Interrogation of a frightened teenager is not investigation. I received the following from a principle who was on the scene in 1994: \u201cHow can you have an investigation without anyone talking to us? … 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":[16,17,11,93,10,23,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmas-dahlheimer","category-isti","category-john-eidenschink","category-michael-blecker","category-aw-richard-sipe","category-timothy-kelly","category-tom-andert","wp-image-borders"],"views":2156,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8923,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/8923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}