The most shocking thing about Saint John’s list of eighteen monk offenders… at least nine of the men on the list remain on campus today.
John Gagliardi Comments on Abuse (1067 Miles Away)
Posted January 24, 2012; Most Recent Update: January 31, 2012
Last week, Saint John’s University football coach John Gagliardi again spoke on the record about sexual misconduct.
The long history of sexual misconduct in Collegeville? No.
As he did back in November [ View ] , Gagliardi spoke about sexual misconduct at Penn State.
The first articles regarding sexual misconduct in Collegeville were made public in August of 1991. [ View ]
In the 20+ years since then, Gagliardi has never offered a public comment on the problems — and the victims — in his own back yard.
Literally (and figuratively)… Gagliardi’s own back yard.
Note: In this photo from approximately 1975, a group of children gathered outside John Gagliardi’s home. [ View ] For obvious reasons, we cannot disclose how many of the nineteen children in the photo were victims of sexual misconduct at Saint John’s.
But John Gagliardi has chosen to not address the misconduct issues so close to home.
Instead, in a TwinCities.com article [ View ] regarding the death of Joe Paterno, Gagliardi said:
“I don’t know why [Joe Paterno] even should have been connected to that thing (scandal). It’s sad he’s attached to that thing. I don’t know all the (facts). He wasn’t the guy, the culprit. I really feel pretty saddened about it.”
and
“I just wish they had not hastened his death with all the stress they heaped on him at the end. Underserved, I feel. It was a Greek tragedy, and the Pontius Pilate group hastened his death. He had to die of a broken heart.”
Don’t know why Paterno should have been connected? Undeserved? Greek tragedy? The Pontius Pilate group?
Note: Pontius Pilate is best known as the judge at Jesus’ trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus. [ Wiki ]
Did Gagliardi just compare Joe Paterno to Jesus, and those who thought Paterno should have done more to Pontius Pilate?
According to a January 24, 2012 Philadelphia Inquirer article [ View ] Gagliardi is “convinced that attempts on the part of some critics to link [Paterno] too closely to the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal are misguided.”
John Gagliardi is a great coach with an amazing resume.
John Gagliardi is also a hypocrite… and a coward.
In April of 2011, Saint John’s University’s Chancellor Abbot John Klassen released a list of eighteen monk offenders. [ View ]
Gagliardi knew many, if not all, of the men on the list. Brother John Kelly (after he was removed from the high school on campus for sexual misconduct) drove bus for Gagliardi’s football team… and the other seventeen worked in and around campus as teachers, nurses, resident advisors, and priests.
For decades, the monks and other personnel at Saint John’s propositioned and/or molested friends of Gagliardi’s children, his football players and other vulnerable targets on campus.
Note: At least two of John Gagliardi’s football players have reported sexual misconduct by monks from Saint John’s Abbey. Another player was propositioned by a visiting priest, on campus to teach a course at Saint John’s University.
Approximately 250 individuals have alleged some form of misconduct involving personnel from Saint John’s.
Note: Using the most conservative of estimates (based on three known reports) at least twenty of Gagliardi’s players have been victimized. A conservative estimate on the number of actual victims on campus is a staggering, almost unbelievable, number.
Few people believe that that Abbot Klassen’s list of eighteen monk offenders [ View ] is a comprehensive list of monk perpetrators.
In fact, Klassen’s list does not include the names of two monk offenders mentioned in a news conference the same day the letter was released. The list also does not include the names of several other monks who have had credible allegations made against them, including the current prior of Saint John’s Abbey — and big Johnnie football fan — Rev. Tom Andert [ More ].
The most shocking thing about Saint John’s list of eighteen monk offenders…
At least nine of the men on the list remain on campus today. [ View ]
How are these nine men supervised? See for yourself… Here.
Acts of misconduct allegedly perpetrated by these men include sodomy and masturbation of a minor.
In the Gagliardi household, however, there is a term for some of the people who brought allegations of misconduct against monks at Saint John’s.
They are called, “liars”.
According to one family member:
“XXXX is a liar and I know that for a fact”
“The story about XXXX are lies”
“the XXXXX are liars, I know for a fact”
This same Gagliardi family member also claimed that they knew even more about offending monk Rev. Allen Tarlton. “ohhhhhhhhh yes,” they commented in November of 2011.
They know even more??
Another Gagliardi family member commented, “Most of the people on the list I have been well aware of being pretty evil people.”
With whom have they shared all of this information?
Well, they shared the “liar” information with Abbot Klassen. The same Abbot Klassen who covered up of the crimes committed by Rev. Bruce Wollmering because of the effect that making Rev. Wollmering’s name public would have on the capital campaign and enrollment. [ More ]
The information about Rev. Allen Tarlton and the concerns about bus driver Kelly, though?
What have the Gagliardis done with this information?
It is worth asking… What have John Gagliardi and his family EVER done to stop abuse, support the victims, and end the secrecy and silence regarding misconduct at Saint John’s?
Aside from an unconfirmed story that John Gagliardi, in the early 1980’s, met with the abbot to request that he “keep his monks away from my players”, there is no record or indication that Gagliardi has ever spoken out on behalf of victims and against sexual misconduct.
When Saint John’s University student Joshua Guimond disappeared in 2002, [ View ] the Gagliardis made no public statement. Guimond is still missing.
When abuse settlements were announced in 1992, 2002 and 2011, the Gagliardis were silent.
It is time for John Gagliardi to make a statement regarding the crimes and continued coverup of misconduct in Collegeville.
Either that, or shut up regarding the Penn State scandal and Joe Paterno.
Below is the original post from November 9, 2011. It was edited [ View ] out of respect for John Gagliardi and a family member who claimed his health was failing and the post “will kill him”.
It is time for Gagliardi to step down as coach, apologize for his recent comments, apologize for looking the other way for so many years, educate his family on the trauma of sexual abuse, insist that the monastery and university provide a full accounting of sexual and other misconduct, and provide a full accounting of his own knowledge of misconduct in Collegeville.
It is time to do the right thing.
May he then enjoy his family during his remaining days without the self-inflicted stress and guilt that Joe Paterno may have lived with during his final days.
Patrick Marker
BehindthePineCurtain.com
January 24, 2012
Updated January 26, 2012
Updated January 29, 2012
John Gagliardi’s Attention Misguided
Originally Posted November 9, 2011
Gagliardi lives less than a mile from Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, home to over a dozen sex offenders. 250 children and vulnerable adults have been victimized within a mile of Gagliardi’s home.
And his first public comments regarding sexual misconduct were about Penn State?
“It’s just awful,” Gagliardi was quoted in the Saint Cloud Times [ View ], “Just awful. If they’re true, I don’t know if there is enough punishment in the world for a guy like that.”
[Update: Gagliardi also commented on the Penn State scandal… Here]It is worth repeating… Gagliardi lives less than a mile from Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, home to over a dozen sex offenders. 250 children and vulnerable adults have been victimized within a mile of Gagliardi’s home. [ View ]
Gagliardi could have, but didn’t speak about the list of the eighteen offending monks that was released by Saint John’s Abbot John Klassen in April [ View ]. Each of the eighteen men on the list roamed the campus during Gagliardi’s tenure.
As a father and grandfather, Gagliardi could have spoken about the steps he took the first time he became aware of misconduct by the monks and other personnel on campus. Or the second time. Or the third time. He could have, but has never spoken publicly about the six offenders (Griffith, Kelly, Moorse, Schulte, Tarlton, Taylor) who worked at Saint John’s Preparatory School where his son attended from 1981-1985. [ View ]
Gagliardi could have, but did not speak out in support of at least two Johnnie football players whose lives and football careers were affected by sexual misconduct by monks on campus.
Gagliardi could have, but did not speak about his athletic department’s coverup of misconduct by Saint John’s monk Fr. Bruce Wollmering in 2003. [ View ]
Gagliardi could have, but did not speak out on behalf of the more than 250 victims of sexual misconduct in his own town of Collegeville, Minnesota.
Instead, Gagliardi spoke about sexual misconduct at Penn State University [ View ].
Gagliardi’s compassion for the victims and distain for the offender (Jerry Sandusky) at Penn State is commendable.
When will Gagliardi speak out in support of those victimized in Collegeville? And when will Gagliardi speak out against those men and women who have, and continue to cover up and enable misconduct to flourish in his own backyard?
There are two leaders in Collegeville: Abbot John Klassen and coach John Gagliardi, but not necessarily in that order.
Abbot Klassen has proven to be dishonest, deceptive and insensitive. Klassen is just another compromised monk in a monastic house built on compromise and held together with desperate public relations moves.
John Gagliardi has proven only to be silent… until now. And when Gagliardi finally spoke about misconduct, he spoke about a target 1067 miles away. His remarks were insensitive to the victims of misconduct in Collegeville.
Which reporter will have the guts to ask Gagliardi what he knows about the history of misconduct at Saint John’s? What did he do, and who is he holding accountable, to stop the misconduct at Saint John’s?
The threat has not passed. Those in leadership must do everything they can to protect children, students and other vulnerable targets.
To date, they have not.
