MINNESOTA
Fox 9
[with video]
Updated: Dec 15, 2013
posted by Shelby Capacio
video report by Trish Van Pilsum
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (KMSP) –
“I hope you die a thousand deaths” — shocking and violent words from a Catholic monk in Minnesota whose message led to an apology from the head of St. John’s Abbey for a victim of sexual abuse — and a criminal investigation.
St. John’s Abbey is located in Collegeville, Minn., northwest of St. Cloud, Minn. A college, a prep school and a monastery that hundreds of monks of the Benedictine order have called home can be found there.
Most of the monks who lived there have never been in trouble, but in the past few days, St. John’s Abbey released a list of 18 monks who have faced credible allegations of sexual abuse.
No one has pushed harder for that release than a man named Patrick Marker. He was abused by a monk when he was a student at the prep school 30 years ago. Now, he maintains a website called Behind the Pine Curtain, which is devoted exclusively to exposing misconduct at St. John’s Abbey.
As one might expect, Marker gets mixed responses to his site.
“Everything from former students writing to share their stories and their support, and every once in a while I’ll get an e-mail from someone who doesn’t quite agree with the methods or the fact that I have anything to say about St. John’s,” Marker told the Fox 9 Investigators.
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