{"id":9357,"date":"2015-11-24T14:36:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T22:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=9357"},"modified":"2015-11-27T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T19:49:11","slug":"st-johns-abbey-monk-accused-of-abuse-reports-200-plus-sexual-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/st-johns-abbey-monk-accused-of-abuse-reports-200-plus-sexual-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s Abbey monk accused of abuse reports 200-plus sexual encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

(StarTribune) The first batch of personnel files on monks accused of sex abuse at St. John\u2019s Abbey in Collegeville were released Tuesday, in which a former counselor and dormitory prefect at St. John\u2019s University reported having 200 sexual encounters \u2014 some with St. John students.
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\nRead the Entire Article and View Comments… Here<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rev. Finian McDonald told a psychologist that his youngest victims were 13 or 14 year old prostitutes in Thailand, that he had 18 victims while serving as a prefect at St. John\u2019s dormitories, and that he had acted out sexually and abused alcohol during most of his 29 years as a dormitory prefect.<\/p>\n

That information, from a 2012 psychological assessment, is contained in abbey personnel files on McDonald and four other monks credibly accused of child sex abuse that were released in response to an abuse victim\u2019s legal settlement earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The abbey has identified 19 such monks to date, and their personnel files have been turned over to attorney Jeff Anderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reflects to us \u2026 that there are dozens and hundreds of survivors that are yet to be known and yet to have a voice,\u201d said Anderson at a news conference.<\/p>\n

Files were also released on the Rev. Tom Gillespie, former priest Fran Hoefgen, the Rev. Bruce Wollmering and the Rev. Richard Eckroth. Eckroth and Wollmering are deceased. Hoefgen was acquitted earlier this year of sexually abusing a boy in Hastings.<\/p>\n

The abbey issued a written statement in response to the document release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are documents in each file which may be quoted and framed in a lurid context,\u201d wrote abbey spokesman Brother Aelred Senna. \u201cBut the huge majority of the documents in each of these files acknowledges the very real failures of some monks while showing each of the accused monks as a fallible, relatable person.<\/p>\n

The files \u201cshow that the Abbey did not try to cover up allegations and did a reasonable job of managing the monk and the problem,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Read the Entire Article and View Comments… Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Jean Hopfensperger
\nStar Tribune
\nNovember 24, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(StarTribune) The first batch of personnel files on monks accused of sex abuse at St. John\u2019s Abbey in Collegeville were released Tuesday, in which a former counselor and dormitory prefect at St. John\u2019s University reported having 200 sexual encounters \u2014 … 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":[515,219,7,51,14,19,12,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-file-release","category-aelred-senna","category-bruce-wollmering","category-finian-mcdonald","category-fran-hoefgen","category-jeff-anderson","category-richard-eckroth","category-thomas-gillespie","wp-image-borders"],"views":2432,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357","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=9357"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9364,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9357\/revisions\/9364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}