“Hospitality runs rampant within the St. John’s Abbey and, as a music major, this is clear at student recitals, largely attended by the monks in support of the students.”
[Webmaster’s Note: Proud St. John’s University senior Eric Loehr’s opinion article (below) reads like a last-ditch effort to save the reputation of an institution, Saint John’s Abbey, which has done nothing of substance in the last twenty years to save itself. Eric’s claim that the abbey, “has acted in a comprehensive and forthright manner” is incorrect, if not laughable. Ultimately, it’s painful… for everyone involved. Nothing about the manner in which the abbey has acted has been comprehensive or forthright. A comprehensive approach includes information about members of Jim Smith’s basketball teams and John Gagliardi’s football teams who were adversely affected by the pain of abuse and misconduct, a longer list of personnel credibly accused, chemical castration, abortion, illegal drug use, suicide, attempted suicide, and long list of complicit men who stood by and did nothing while their “brothers” committed crimes. The “date of the abuses cases” doesn’t matter to a pedophile or someone who preys on the vulnerable. It should, however, matter to anyone in the vicinity of such a criminal, whether that criminal is facing you at Sunday mass, living in the Twin Cities, eating lunch next to you in the refectory or watching your recital.]
Times Writers Group: Unfair reporting hurts St. John’s
8:06 PM, May. 8, 2011
Stereotyping affects Abbey members
As a St. John’s University student and soon to be alumnus, I can no longer sit silent to the current injustices done to the university and St. John’s Abbey, carried out in the name of justice for those who were abused by specific St. John’s Abbey community members.
The truth deserves to be told, but the April 28 WCCO-TV report “Accused Of Sexual Abuse: The Monks Living Next Door” has no direction and only leads to the misplaced retributive abuse on current members of the St. John’s community.
Good people
I graduate from St. John’s in less than one week and will leave the place I spent most of my life so far. I began my journey here in the fourth grade, when I joined the St. John’s Boys’ Choir. Founded by Brother Paul Richards, the organization enlightened my passion for music and taught me Benedictine and Catholic values I will hold dear for a lifetime, including listening, respect for persons and hospitality.
As a young boy, I was inspired by the St. John’s Abbey monks and their strong dedication to their faith as well as their constant enthusiasm for our young and ambitious futures. Richards had a profound effect on my decision to attend St. John’s for college after he invited another Cathedral High School student and choir alumnus and I to join the Abbey Schola, the monastery’s choir. I have sung with the Abbey Schola since my junior year in high school and have grown to know the monastic members of the choir as good friends and mentors.
These men are the best display of how to fulfill St. Benedict’s call to become who we are by our relationships with others. Their faith is strong and they display the greatest amount of respect for my fellow students and I than any other members of the St. John’s community.
St. John’s President the Rev. Robert Koopmann continues to teach me lessons of hospitality, taking time out of his hectic schedule to converse with me about graduate school and my final days at St. John’s. Hospitality runs rampant within the St. John’s Abbey and, as a music major, this is clear at student recitals, largely attended by the monks in support of the students.
Read Full Article Here
Times Writers Group: Unfair reporting hurts St. John’s
8:06 PM, May. 8, 2011
