Calling for an end to secrecy about sex abuse by monks at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson filed a lawsuit on behalf of two men who allege that two monks at the abbey abused them when they were minors.
According to a June 7 report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the men say they were abused in the 1980s, when they were both students at St. John’s Prep School, near the abbey.
According to Abbot John Klassen, the two men accused in the suit, Frs. Dunstan Moorse and Allen Tarlton, are among 13 monks who have had “credible accusations” lodged against them and now live under restricted living conditions at the abbey and are not allowed to have contact with minors.
Anderson said he hopes the suit will pressure the abbey to give all records of abuse to police, publicly disclose all incidence of abuse by the monks, and put an end to the abbey’s policy of secret settlements.
Sex abuse suit filed against St. John’s monks – Church In Crisis – Brief Article
National Catholic Reporter, June 21, 2002
Sex abuse suit filed against St. John’s monks
