SHOREVIEW – A national support group for people molested by clergy plans to pass out leaflets in protest today outside a Shoreview church where a Collegeville monk worked for two years.
The Rev. Michael Bik worked at the Catholic Community of St. Odilia where the protest will take place.
Bik was accused of misconduct with two teen-age boys in the 1970s, before he joined St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville and before his ordination.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests contends the church has been too slow to notify potential victims of clergy sex abuse and “has put countless number of youths and vulnerable adults in danger.”
According to the pension records of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Bik also taught at the Church of St. Stephen in Anoka, said Pat Marker, who recently resigned from an external review board that was formed in response to a clergy sexual abuse scandal.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they recently ‘found’ new records,” Marker said.
He also took issue with the archdiocese’s claim it did not have records of the 1997 accusation against Bik, who remained a teacher at St. John’s Preparatory School for five more years.
Bik, 57, lives at the monastery but works under restrictions set by Project Pathfinder Inc., a Twin Cities-based private nonprofit organization that develops recommendations for treatment.
“The fact that the archdiocese didn’t come forward sooner speaks more about their continued secrecy than the forgetfulness of the archbishop,” Marker said Friday.
The Rev. William Skudlarek, spokesman for St. John’s Abbey, could not be reached for comment.
Marker, who was molested by a priest in 1983 while a student at St. John’s Preparatory School, recently launched a Web site, behindthepinecurtain.com, to help other victims.
In July, the abbey publicized accusations made against Bik, the Rev. Bruce Wollmering, who also lives at the monastery, and the late Rev. Robert Blumeyer.
Wollmering was accused in 2004 of sexual harassment by a former St. John’s University student. The former student said the misconduct started in 1984.
Wollmering was the chair of the psychology department at St. John’s at the time and may have counseled other students. He retired from the faculty in 2004.
Accusations against Blumeyer were made in September and involve a teen-age boy he knew when he was an assistant pastor at a Wayzata parish in 1969.
“This won’t be the last time we see ‘found’ documents, and I would call on the archbishop and the abbot to be more proactive helping victims,” Marker said.
“That would rest easier with all of us,” he said.
Anti-abuse advocates to distribute literature
By Frank Lee fclee@stcloudtimes.com
Published: September 10. 2006 1:00AM
http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060910/NEWS01/109100035
