Father Nathan Libaire, former Saint John’s Abbey monk and the current pastor at Saint John The Baptist Catholic Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico has reportedly been welcoming one of Saint John’s Abbey’s most abusive perpetrators, Father Dunstan Moorse, to his parish yearly, for over a decade.
Father Nathan Libaire left Saint John’s Prep School abruptly in the early 1990s. No reason was provided to his co-workers.
Father Dunstan Moorse is one of 18 monks identified by Abbot John Klassen in a 2011 letter as having credible allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.
In 2012, the abbey’s web site reflected that “rigorous investigations deemed that allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct* against 23 members of the Abbey were credible.”
It is possible that Father Nathan Libaire is among the yet-no-be-disclosed five additional perpetrators identified by the abbey.
According to a former monk:
Nathan Libaire received counseling in New Mexico following allegations of misconduct involving one or more high school students in the early 90’s. Tom Andert was reportedly aware of the allegations.
Update: In a followup email on January 17, 2013, the former monk shared:
Nathan told me when he was back for a community retreat. Nathan said that this was going to be his last trip to Saint John’s and that he was meeting with the Abbot.
And a former co-worker of Father Libaire’s shared this on January 17, 2013:
I have no doubt that Nathan Libaire was up to something in the early 1990’s with [Student’s Name Redacted]. That gay young man loved him, and I recall clearly a day where he was tearfully running through the prep school, yelling, “Have you seen Father Nathan?” to anyone within earshot. Something was going on there, I was there and saw it. This was going on while Andert was working over [Student’s Name Redacted]. Read Father Tom Andert’s Love Letter’s… Here.
Back to Moorse…
Father Moorse first became familiar with the Santa Fe area in 1986. Moorse was sent for counseling with Dr. Alex Quenk but lied to his therapist — and attended graduate school — instead of addressing his desire to masturbate and sodomize young men.
According to a case heard before the STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS:
Documents dated between 1984 and 1987 reflect church officials’ concern over complaints of sexual misconduct against Moorse and question whether Moorse should continue teaching. In September 1986, Moorse left St. John’s and was transferred to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. In 1987, Moorse returned to Minnesota and became an instructor at Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in St. Louis Park.
Despite his tendencies and horrific trail of victims, Moorse is allowed travel as he desires.
According to Moorse’s 2012 Christmas letter:
A couple of vacations, one to Santa Fe and one to Michigan, several weeks at the monastery cabins mainly to clean and get them ready for the monks to use and one or the other to do dried flower card work.
Who is supervising this sexual predator in Michigan, New Mexico and at the cabins?
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has not responded to a request for more information.
