(SC Times Editorial) In defining its core values, St. John\u2019s Preparatory School lists \u201cCommunity\u201d as its first one \u2014 followed by these words:<\/p>\n
\u201cOur school is community, providing hospitality and demonstrating citizenship. Life together in this place is built on trust, love, respect and a genuine interest and concern for one another, which includes welcoming, helping, listening, caring and being present to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Framed against those words, it\u2019s hard to understand why the school, led by the Order of St. Benedict, decided now to ban a prep school alumnus from all of the order\u2019s property for a year \u2014 even if the alumnus is highly critical of how the order has handled clergy sex abuse cases.<\/p>\n
As reported in the Times, Patrick Marker \u2014 a member of the school\u2019s Class of 1983 \u2014 first was required to leave the prep school\u2019s Class of 1983 reunion on June 29 despite it inviting him to attend. About a week later, on July 8, he received a letter from the order barring him from its property for a year.<\/p>\n
Marker was sexually abused by St. John\u2019s clergy while in school there. He came forward about the abuse in 1989. Since then, he\u2019s become an advocate for abuse victims as well as an outspoken critic and intense watchdog of how St. John\u2019s handles clergy sex abuse cases. Still, having law enforcement remove him from the reunion without any evidence of behavior on site that warranted that isn\u2019t just tacky and unprofessional, it runs completely contrary to the school\u2019s core value of community. But what really raises public eyebrows is Marker getting a letter from St. John\u2019s leaders a few days later that bans him from the order\u2019s property for a year. <\/p>\n
Remember, Marker has spent much of the past decade scrutinizing St. John\u2019s \u2014 often in person. Why ban him now? Certainly, as a private entity, it can make such a request. But from the public\u2019s perception \u2014 one shaped by decades of the Catholic Church staying silent about clergy abuse \u2014 the double whammy of evicting him from the reunion (to which it invited him) and then banning him for a year comes across as largely unprovoked. And it all begs the same basic question: Why take these actions now? <\/p>\n
It would behoove St. John\u2019s leaders to answer that question publicly and in detail. Admittedly, it might force them to address issues Marker has raised that they say lack credibility. But the reality is without an explanation, their actions against Marker lack that same credibility.<\/p>\n