Archdiocese List Includes St. John's Abbey Monks

By David Unze
St. Cloud Times
February 13, 2015

http://www.sctimes.com/story/watchdog/2015/02/13/archdiocese-list-includes-st-johns-abbey-monks/23345383/

A prominent attorney representing clergy sex abuse victims this week released a list of 17 clergy from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who have been accused of sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor. The men have been identified in notice of claims submitted to the Archdiocese and its insurance carriers, the first step toward a possible lawsuit. The 17 names have never before been made public. The same list that attorney Jeff Anderson released is also on the archdiocese's website.

The priests on the lists are deceased, permanently out of public ministry, on leave from ministry or on restricted ministry while the claim is being investigated. The archdiocese also posted a larger list of men with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor while assigned as clergy in the archdiocese. One name added to that list this week is Michael Bik, a former monk from St. John's Abbey.

Bik's name appeared previously on a list of abbey monks with substantiated allegations of abuse against them. Bik was permanently removed from ministry in 2002.

Other abbey monks on the archdiocese list include Fran Hoefgen, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie and Brennan Maiers.

To see the list of the names released this week, go to the archdiocese's web page at

[safe-environment.archspm.org]

Contact: dunze@stcloudtimes.com