St. John\u2019s University in Collegeville, MN calls itself a \u201cCollege of Distinction.\u201d But in courtrooms in California and Minnesota, the Benedictine university also being called a predatory fundraiser and has been slapped with allegations of elder abuse.<\/p>\n
Patrick Marker at Behind the Pine Curtain broke the story that:<\/p>\n
Employees of the Order of Saint Benedict OSB (including St. John\u2019s University and Saint John\u2019s Abbey) engaged in \u201cfinancial elder abuse\u201d and \u201cpredatory fundraising\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to legal documents, Saint John\u2019s is accused of:<\/p>\n
1. Liability of Gratuitous Tranferee of Trust Property
\n2. Liability of Gratuitous Tranferee of Personal Property
\n3. Constructive Fraud
\n4. Participation in Breach of Trust
\n5. Breach of Fiduciary Duty
\n6. Financial Elder Abuse<\/p>\n
The story is still developing, and I will report more as I learn it.<\/p>\n
For those of you who don\u2019t know about St. John\u2019s: more than fifty members of the St. John\u2019s community \u2013 including OSB monks, priests, visiting priests, seminarians and lay personnel \u2013 have been credibly accused of abuse since 1940. That\u2019s a huge number of predators from a school as small as St. John\u2019s, which only has approximately 2000 students. It\u2019s smaller than the average high school.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a far stretch to see how a school whose officials covered-up for that many predators could also cover up alleged financial elder abuse.<\/p>\n
(St. John\u2019s is also the alma mater of my friend and colleague Patrick Wall, who has dedicated his post-priesthood career to helping the victims at St. John\u2019s and other Catholic schools, churches and institutions.)<\/p>\n