WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin
Capuchin religious order says priest in charge of Wisconsin high school seminary committed sexual assaults against minors
Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259
The Capuchin Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious order, has announced that Fr. Dennis Druggan, the longtime President of St. Lawrence Seminary, a high school boarding school located in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin and operating in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has been permanently removed from ministry for reports of sexually assaulting minors.
It’s commendable that the Capuchins appear to have taken decisive action in this case and are public about it. It may be too early to judge, but it is an encouraging sign that former and emerging cases will be treated in a similar manner.
In July of 2012, a victim came forward from Montana saying Druggan had sexually assaulted him as a youngster in the 1980’s. The Capuchins then suspended Druggan from his post at St. Lawrence. Druggan denied the sexual assault(s). Now, a second victim has come forward, presumably also from Montana.
Druggan’s denial of these criminal acts, along with his position as president in charge of St. Lawrence, a boarding school for youngsters where he has had unprecedented access to thousands of minors for years, is cause for obvious concern. Child sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the nation, with an annual reporting rate of only 7 or 8 percent. That means that most victims never report their crime and when they do it takes decades for them to do so.
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