BURLINGTON( VT)
SEVEN DAYS
September 25, 2019
By Derek Brouwer
A recent report by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington was billed as an exhaustive accounting of sexual abuse allegations against Vermont priests. Yet the Edmundites, members of the Colchester-based Catholic order that founded Saint Michael’s College, have created their own list of 10 accused priests — and released it only on an obscure website where it has gone virtually unnoticed.
The list identifies nine deceased Edmundite priests who did not appear in the diocesan report, even though several were accused of abusing children while serving in Vermont. Two of the men — the late John A. Stankiewicz and the late Nelson B. Ziter — were revered figures at St. Michael’s.
College and Edmundite leaders say the allegations are unrelated to campus life.
Edmundite Superior General the Very Rev. David Cray, also a college trustee, nonetheless said he worried how St. Michael’s alumni would react to news of the allegations. The Society of Saint Edmund, as the order is formally known, published its findings in early August.
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