Restricted Monk visits School Cafeteria

Posted on March 14, 2010
Posted in Brennan Maiers, John Klassen, Restricted List

Pedophile priest Brennan Maiers enjoyed breakfast with family members in the college cafeteria this morning.

What, exactly, does “restriction” mean?

Note: One of Fr. Maier’s victim was nine years old.

New Articles and Documents Added to Archive

Posted on February 27, 2010
Posted in Web Site Updates

We are in the process of adding new articles and documents to this web site. There are currently 214 documents on this web site and we still have 132 documents to post. Many of these documents date back to the 80’s and 90’s. To view the most recent additions and modifications, please click here.

Oblates attend Catholic Studies talk by Abbot John Klassen

Posted on February 24, 2010
Posted in John Klassen

Oblates were invited for Evening Prayer and supper with the sisters before Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville opened the series of Catholic Studies talks with Reconciliation: A Scarred Church Faces a New Century. Quite a sizable crowd gathered in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel for the presentation.
Read More

Abbot John Klassen: A Scarred Church Faces a New Century

Posted on February 24, 2010
Posted in John Klassen

Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville opened the series of Catholic Studies talks with Reconciliation: A Scarred Church Faces a New Century. Quite a crowd gathered in Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel for the presentation.
Read More

A Scarred Church Faces the New Century

Posted on February 16, 2010
Posted in John Klassen

Theologian John Klassen will speak on “Reconciliation: A Scarred Church Faces the New Century,” at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel on The College of St. Scholastica campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Read More

Message: Blane Wasnie

Posted on February 11, 2010
Posted in Blane Wasnie

“Blaine Wasnie has alway been and will always be a VERY difficult, angry, abusive man. Any member of the monastic community knows this and he should NEVER be in a position to interact with lay people.”

Read More

Blane Wasnie – St. Benedict Church in Avon

Posted on February 9, 2010
Posted in Blane Wasnie, John Klassen

According to a staff member at St. Benedict Church in Avon, MN, Father Blane Wasnie is “out” this week but will return next week.

Allegations of misconduct by the priest were recently uncovered.
Read More

Fr. Jonathan Licari

Posted on February 7, 2010
Posted in Jonathan Licari

An update regarding Fr. Licari will be available soon.

Addition Search terms: Fr. Jonathon Licari

Regarding Tom Andert

Posted on February 4, 2010
Posted in Allen Tarlton, Jim Phillips, Tom Andert

Fr. Tom Andert, OSB, unless I’m very much mistaken, was part and parcel of the sexual underground at the Prep School during the ~1980 time frame. While I have no specific allegations of sexual abuse against him, nor do I know of any, he was very good friends and daily colleagues of Br. Jim Phillips and Father Alan Tarleton during the relevant time periods. I would be VERY much surprised to learn he did not know of the sexual shenanigans doing on in the boys’ dorm and elsewhere.
Read More

Hospitality ala 2010….

Posted on January 8, 2010
Posted in Tim Backous

Monastic life is often thought of as “counter-cultural” and perhaps this is a radical instance of that. Monks are mysteriously able to tolerate almost anything. – Tim Backous, OSB

Read More

Lawsuit Charges Sexual Misconduct against Former Hastings Man

Posted on December 23, 2009
Posted in Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Kelly

(Hastings Star-Gazette) Minnesota — A deceased former Hastings area resident and priest, who was a counselor at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., for many years, is named in two civil lawsuits filed in Stearns County alleging sexual misconduct as far back as the early 1970s.

Read More

St. John’s monks vote to return $2M Petters gift, rename building

Posted on December 21, 2009
Posted in John Klassen, Tom Petters

Another black mark on the Petters name, after Tom Petters was convicted of running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme: The monks of St. John’s Abbey have voted to return a $2 million gift from the Thomas J. Petters Family Foundation for the construction of the Petters Pavilion and to remove the name.

Since the pavilion is already built, how does one “return” it? According to Brother Aaron Raverty, the money — rather than the building — was donated to St. John’s Abbey. Since it has already been spent in building the pavilion,”We will be paying back the money out of the abbey’s own operating funds. Arrangements with the court-appointed receiver have not been finalized, he says, “But we expect to send the repayment in two cash payments. One will be sent in January 2010, and the second payment about six months later.”

No contractual obligations are needed to negotiate the name change, Raverty said. The order’s community leader, Abbot John Klassen, has met with Tom Petters’ parents — in whose name the pavilion was named — and his parents understand and support the monks’ actions.

The 3,500 square-foot structure was finished in May 2007.

It’s opening was described this way in the Abbey’s Fall 2007 newsletter:

Several hundred guests joined the monastic community for the blessing of the pavilion on May 6, 2007. After brief remarks by Abbot John Klassen, OSB,Thomas Petters and architect Vincent James, Rosemary Petters read from the prophet Ezekiel who describes the new temple built to replace Solomon’s temple destroyed by the Babylonians.

Earlier this month, the College of St. Benedict renamed its Petters Auditorium to Escher Auditorium, to distance itself from the disgraced former benefactor and to honor the late Sister Firmin Escher, a nun at the Monastery at St. Benedict who helped the school construct its Benedicta Arts Center. The auditorium was named after Petters’ parents, Fred and Rosemary, after he handed the college a $3 million pledge.

St. John’s monks vote to return $2M Petters gift, rename building
December 21, 2009
City Pages

Link: http://www.citypages.com/news/st-johns-monks-vote-to-return-2m-petters-gift-rename-building-6557371

St. John’s Abbey to return $2 million from Petters

Posted on December 18, 2009
Posted in Tom Petters

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn.—The monks of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville have decided to the return $2 million from convicted businessman Tom Petters.

Read More

St. John’s Abbey to return $2 million from Petters

Posted on December 18, 2009
Posted in Tom Petters

(MPR) The monks of St. John’s Abbey voted this week to return a $2 million gift from the Thomas J. Petters Family Foundation for construction of the Petters Pavilion, and to rename the facility.

Read More

Another child sexual abuse lawsuit targets St. John’s

Posted on December 17, 2009
Posted in Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Klassen, Patrick Noaker

A second civil lawsuit has been filed in Stearns County Court against the Benedictine Order at St. John’s Abbey in St. Cloud. It accuses members of the order of covering up the alleged sexual abuse of a teenage boy in the 1980s. The late Rev. Bruce Wollmering, the Rev. Finnian McDonald and Brother John Kelly are named in the suit. The alleged victim’s lawyer, Patrick Noaker, said his client now lives on the West Coast.
Read More

Lawsuit filed against St. John’s abbey

Posted on December 17, 2009
Posted in Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Kelly, John Klassen

The second lawsuit in two weeks was filed Wednesday against St. John’s Abbey.
Read More

New lawsuit says three clerics molested a student

Posted on December 16, 2009
Posted in Bob Schwiderski, Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Kelly, Patrick Noaker, SNAP

In separate instances, over three years, three Benedictine clerics at St. John’s Abbey and university sexually abused a teenaged student, according to a new civil lawsuit filed today.
Read More

Another abuse suit filed against Benedictine Order

Posted on December 16, 2009
Posted in Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Kelly

For the second time in eight days, a lawsuit was filed against the Benedictine Order at St. John’s Abbey accusing it of covering up the sexual abuse of a student at St. John’s University 25 years ago.
Read More

2nd lawsuit filed against St. John’s Abbey

Posted on December 16, 2009
Posted in Bruce Wollmering, Finian McDonald, John Kelly, John Klassen

The second lawsuit in two weeks was filed Wednesday against St. John’s Abbey. The lawsuit accuses the abbey of fraud and contends that three monks either solicited or engaged in sexual misconduct with a former St. John’s University student.
Read More

Letter: St. John’s Abbey doesn’t care about kids’ safety

Posted on December 15, 2009
Posted in David Clohessy, Opinion, SNAP

Once again, facing a child sex abuse and cover-up scandal, St. John’s Abbey officials trot out the same tired canard about their “policies” about pedophilia. (“Lawsuit targets St. John’s Prep School, abbey,” Dec. 9.)
Read More