At least four men have come forward with accusations of misconduct by Rev. Dan Ward. Excerpts from their statements:
1. ”During my visit, I spent the night in a guest room at the monastery. The night of my stay, Fr. Ward entered the guest room while I was in bed. After some conversation Fr. Ward walked over, sat on the edge of my bed and kissed me on the mouth for an extended and altogether uncomfortable period of time.”
2. “As he kissed me, I also felt him rub his obviously aroused genital area against me. I had never been kissed or touched by a man in this way before, and it was repulsive to me. And I could not understand what prompted it.”
3. “When I reported the situation to Abbot Kelly he listened but then dismissed me saying I was over exaggerating and it would all pass by… I could not believe this as I was consoled by another monk at the time and he had told me that Kelly had known about Ward from a previous case had done nothing about it.”
4. Fr. Dan Ward believed that a well-rounded and mature monastic needed to have an open-minded view of sexuality. The conversation started to become more physical as he began to be aroused by the topic. I rejected his advances and strong sexual initiatives. I immediately left his room and went and got sick. The next morning I went to see XXXXXX and told him of the incident. His response simply was to get over it that Father Ward has great power … and if I wish to continue being a monastic I would just have to accept his behavior.
