{"id":3093,"date":"2011-03-28T17:08:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T00:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2011-03-28T17:08:16","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T00:08:16","slug":"st-john%e2%80%99s-sex-abuse-suits-settled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/st-john%e2%80%99s-sex-abuse-suits-settled\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John\u2019s Sex Abuse Suits Settled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO\/AP) \u2013 Every alumnus of St. John\u2019s University in Collegeville will soon be getting a letter from the school. The letter names 17 priests and monks who the Abbey has identified as having credible allegations of sexual abuse brought against them.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/video.minneapolis.cbslocal.com\/global\/video\/videoplayer.js?rnd=753015;hostDomain=video.minneapolis.cbslocal.com;playerWidth=450;playerHeight=375;isShowIcon=true;clipId=5700284;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=CBS.MINN\/worldnowplayer;enableAds=false;landingPage=null;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The letter was part of a settlement announced Monday between St. John\u2019s and nine victims, who say they were abused from 1960 to 2000.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement does involve an undisclosed amount of money going to the victims. However, the victims\u2019 attorney said this is not about the money; it\u2019s about getting the word out about the 17 men accused and getting other victims to come forward.<\/p>\n<p>Jerry McCarthy, 55, was 17 years old and a student at St. John\u2019s prep \u2014 the boarding school that is on St. John\u2019s campus \u2014 when he was assigned to get counseling from the school psychologist, Father Bruce Wollmering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was actually on the third meeting I had with Father Wollmering \u2014 where he gave me his counseling and testing \u2014 that he actually attacked me in his office,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- McCarthy says he told no one until a year and a half ago when he read Wollmering\u2019s obituary. He says the attack lead him to drop out of school and battle a drug and alcohol addiction, which lasted 17 years.\n\n\u201cWhen it happened, I didn\u2019t think anyone would believe me.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to tell anybody. I didn\u2019t tell my brothers. I didn\u2019t tell my friends. I was ashamed,\u201d he said.\n\nOf the 17 abusers, four have died and three are no longer at the Abbey, according to the letter. However, 10 still remain on campus and live under what St. Johns says are \u201cconstraints of a safety plan and supervision.\u201d\n\nJeff Anderson, the attorney for the victims, said, \u201cthis is about two things: the courage of the survivors and systemic cover-up.\u201d\n\nAnderson distributed a draft of the letter to reporters Monday. Anderson said he expects Abbot John Klassen, who heads the monastery, to sign the letter according to the terms of the settlement.\n\nAnderson has filed thousands of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests. He calls the settlement \u201canother step forward to protecting others and requiring St. John\u2019s to come clean and transparent with the crimes of the past so those don\u2019t occur in the future.\u201d\n\nAnderson says the supervision of the survivors on the list is lax and is concerned they remain fee to molest again. McCarthy agrees.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t even know why they are still in the monastery,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they put up brick walls and protect these people. I don\u2019t understand why they wouldn\u2019t want them out of the monastery.\u201d\n\nNone of the 17 men accused faced criminal charges, and the statute of limitations has long since expired.\n\nWCCO-TV reached out to both the Abbey and St. John\u2019s University to ask them for a comment and to find out when the letter is going to be sent out to all alumni, but have not heard back.\n\nClick on the links below for more information.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/334\/St-Johns-letterpdf\" _mce_href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/334\/St-Johns-letterpdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abuse Settlement: St. John\u2019s Letter<\/a>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/333\/Non-monetary-actionspdf\" _mce_href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/333\/Non-monetary-actionspdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abuse Settlement: Abbey Actions<\/a>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/332\/Available-photos-of-Clerics-with-credible-allegationspdf\" _mce_href=\"http:\/\/andersonadvocates.com\/Files\/332\/Available-photos-of-Clerics-with-credible-allegationspdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abuse Settlement: Photos of Accused<\/a>\n\n(TM and \u00a9 Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) --><\/p>\n<p>Read Entire Article <a href=\"http:\/\/minnesota.cbslocal.com\/2011\/03\/28\/attorney-st-johns-abuse-suits-settled\/\" target=\"_blank\">Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Attorney: St. John\u2019s Sex Abuse Suits Settled<br \/>\nWCCO Radio &#8211; Minneapolis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO\/AP) \u2013 Every alumnus of St. John\u2019s University in Collegeville will soon be getting a letter from the school. The letter names 17 priests and monks who the Abbey has identified as having credible allegations of sexual abuse brought &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/st-john%e2%80%99s-sex-abuse-suits-settled\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[19,145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jeff-anderson","category-settlement-information","wp-image-borders"],"views":769,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","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=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3094,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions\/3094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}