Saturday, December 19, 2015

Grieving Parents Call for Reform of Corrupt Benedictine Abbey in Minnesota

Edit: back in March, we took notice of the almost unanimous absence in local reporting of the abuse and suicide of Ben Spanier, and the man who most directly caused it, the Prior of St. John's Abbey, Father Tom Andert, now on leave of absence.  Andert was subsequently placed on restriction and relived of his duties pending the investigation.  When the story of Andert's dismissal broke, the local news media completely ignored Ben's very credible accusations and his death, covered almost exclusively in a blog by a former alumnus of St. John's Preparatory School.

Only yesterday, National Public Radio, itself born at Collegeville, did a piece about Ben's parents, who are calling for a change in the "culture of secrecy" at St. John's Abbey.  It's not clear what is meant by this, but the sincerity of his grieving parents and the contempt with which they've been treated by the Abbey is very real, indeed.

To date, no one is calling for the resignation of Abbot John Klassen who has consistently lied to protect predators and preserve the atmosphere of heresy in collegeville.  Those who were very vocal in calling for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt, like the dissident St. John's alum, Father Mark Tegeder, are completely silent now.

How a story like this could be passed over in the local Catholic and secular media is truly a thing to behold.  We hope this call for reform isn't a call for their kind of reform.

[NPR] His parents say his problems began 20 years earlier, when he was a student at St. John's Prep in Collegeville. They say their son wasn't the same after he began spending time with the Rev. Tom Andert, a prominent priest who was placed on leave earlier this year for a separate allegation of sexual misconduct. 
The Spaniers say they're coming forward now because they want the culture at St. John's to change. Ben Spanier had attempted suicide before. His father, Eric, will never forget picking up the phone that night in 1994. On the other end of the line was the Rev. Tom Andert, the head of the boarding school at St. John's, where Ben was a junior.
"I answered the phone," Eric Spanier said. "He was calling from the emergency room in the hospital, so it was a shock." 
He said he was relieved the priest was there to care for his son.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This kind of predator priest b.s. unfortunately has gone on in many Catholic schools for boys for years. I was the victim of an advance by 2 priests at my Highschool. I won't name the school, or the Order of priests which staff it (or did).
Nine years ago, when I was a junior in highschool, I was approached by a priest who tried to make advances. When I say this, I am not boasting about myself or bragging, but I was a major member of our Prep school's football, basketball, wrestling and swim teams. I was profiled on two of our local Philadelphia TV;s stations, and while a Senior in highschool, did modeling for several major catalogs (Macy's, and LL Bean )...which I continued thru college and for a few years after.
But after a football game, in the locker room, one of the priests who always came to all the sporting events came up to me. After a few minutes of polite conversation during which he congratulated us on a bog win, he was acting weird and suddenly the alarm bells went off in me and I stopped him and firmly but politely told him to back off and leave me alone. He never tried anything again.....but after I graduated from college, I heard that he had been accused of this kind of thing with another student (who unfortunately got more deeply involved than me with the priest). The priest was releieved of duties (after nearly 20 years at the school), and placed on indefinite "sick-leave".
So unfortunately, since Vatican II and the general destruction of the Church, the priesthood, and even morality, this kind of thing is widespread.
Aside from telling my folks, I told the Headmaster of the Prep school I attended, and we had a meeting about this priest, but he wasn;t there. I admire my family for wanting to pursue it, but since I had been worldly enough to know where this priest was coming from and had forcefully told him to "back off", nothing happened. I feel very sorry for Ben, and for other guys around the country who were more seriously victims than I.
A strong Pope, Cardinals, bishops, priests and religious superiors, a Holy Mass, and a strong discipline and belief in the realness of personal sin would stop a lot of this. But unfortunately, for now we have none of that. That is why this is allowed to continue and be covered up.
Let's pray for Ben and his family. However, I can't find it in myself to pray for the priest. He and other like him are, in many instances beyond help, even prayers.
Damian Malliapalli

Tancred said...

This was a problem in the Middle Ages, not just a problem after V2.

One of the older deviants at Collegeville, Father Allen Tarelton, has been preying on adolescents and students aince 1955.

Gabriel said...

And even further back, Tancred. From Constantine until the new Code of Canon Law under Pius XI in 1922, the an cleric convicted in an ecclesiastical court of child sexual abuse was stripped of his clerical status and handed over to the civil authorities for punishment. In many cases this meant long prison terms, sometimes torture and even execution.
Vat II did not trigger clerical sexual abuse of children.

Anonymous said...

Maybe not, but it's contributed to the collapse of the priesthood, the sense of the Sacred, respect for priests, obedience, discipline, the sense of sin and evil and the need for chastity and the need to confess, etc.
If we are taught by people like Pope Francis, that God is a God of Mercy no matter what we do (as he has said), then that opens the door to the belief that everything and anything we do is OK, no matter how perverse and repugnant (homosexual acts, murder, rape, genocide, war, porno, hate crimes,vandalism, adultery,etc.), because God forgives us because God is a God of Mercy.
That opens the door open not only to the things perpetrated by priests at St. John's and at my Pep school but in hundreds like it.
This is the Holy Year of Mercy. I have read where associates of Pope Francis have said that anything you do is okay, (including abortion) because God is of Mercy.
That's a big time violation of valid judgment by the Pope and his gang.
Damian Malliapalli

Anonymous said...

I agree w/you Tancred -- where is MS Winters to howl for these perverts heads? Where's the articles on Huffpost? Where's the Nat'l "catholic" reporter? Where's the Boston Globe Crux or Rocco Palmo?

What's disgusting is that even Gloria TV won't shout out McCarrick for probably sexually abusing this man who now is given nat'l platform to state a 6 year old girl where's lipstick and has sex w/a 300 lb biker who wants to wear her dress (watch their clip beginning at 1:05 or so. Then watch the sede-vacantist clip posted over a week ago that shows CARDINAL McCARRICK at 30 seconds (nun at 27 seconds) to all the Catholics who might now watch this stuff.
http://www.gloria.tv/media/QQtjrU4Bkob

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/news/4-minute-video-52-year-old-man-married-23-years-7-children-now-wants-live-six-year-old-girl/#.VnXt1fkrJUQ

Guess fellay doesn't want to mess w/such a POWERFUL Team B friend of transvestite frances.

Meanwhile clip holy family puts up behind that is this:
http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/news/man-sentenced-life-prison-raping-girlfriends-6-year-old-daughter-recording-cellphone/#.VnXwp_krJUQ

Gloria TV contents itself w/talking about adoption to Sodomites in Britain. What are the statistics for the U.S.?

Meanwhile Church Militant is reporting that Fairy Peter Urine Drinker was "untouchable" because he witnessed "a priest" abusing a child. Where is the public outcry about that?

So many say they are "prolife" and pro tradition, but like the parents of Ben Spanier and Phil Lawler (bought off by "Dr." Mirius & now attacks someone going after Wuerl) they are sacrificing children body and soul to the perverts they keep saying are the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (spotless bride of Christ) while they feebly (say) they want (some unspecified) change.

These are the people who should walk out--but by their inaction they let this continue and continue and continue. To me they must have some (habitual mortal) sin of their own.

Anonymous said...

More fruits of vatican 2

Lynda said...

Are there no witnesses to ground prosecutions, in the Church or civil legal system? Horrific.

Tancred said...

Ordinarily I'd delete this, but since you understand and sympathize with Ben Spanier's parents and understand the situation at Collegeville, I'll respond a bit at length.

It's very difficult to follow you, and I have no idea who you're talking about at ChurchMilitant.

Perhaps you are saying that those who do not support the Sedevacantist position are part of the problem. I don't believe this is true, and posts like these, while they may be passionate, and contain elements that are individually true, certainly don't help that position.

Habitual mortal sin does darken and *confuse* the intellect and we all need to be wary of that.

Thanks for reading and taking the trouble to reply.

Tancred said...

I'm still trying to get my mind around the fact that +Daneels isn't in prison, and rather than at least being sent into a disgraceful exile, enjoys the confidence and esteem of +++Bergoglio.

Anonymous said...

The fact that Daneels isn't in prison shows the depth of the corruption of both the Catholic Church in Belgium, and of the Belgian society and legal system. From what I have read, except from the loyal and traditional,faithful Catholic sector, Daneels enjoys a sterling reputation and is beyond reproach. This means that all the aged radical liberal priests, nuns, and like minded elderly lay Catholics, the lesbians, gays,transexuals ,perverts, non-Catholics who make up the majority of Belgina society love and esteem him. So he is untouchable. Nothing will happen to him. Yet a faithful, traditional archbishop who tried to restore the Catholic Faith and tradition and lead people to holiness such as Archbishop Leonard, the former primate of Belgium will be demonized, reviled, egged (a bunch of radicals threw eggs at him for his comments), and denied the red hat of Cardinal that he deserved.
It says a lot about the mindset and character, and the soul of Pope Francis, that rather than praise and elevate the man who tried to defend Catholic truth and tradition..as Benedict XVI tried to do, that instead Bergoglio sides with Daneels the pervert-protector and elevates him still further to a position of authority during the last Synod, and showers him with respect and praise.
I wish Bergoglio would be gone. Maybe in 2016 !
Damian Malliapalli

Anonymous said...

"Lawler and his wife, Leila, housed one of McGuire’s victims during the 1999-2000 school year when the victim was an EIGHTH-GRADER at the Trivium School, a small Catholic school in Lancaster. Both complained about McGuire’s behavior during his visits with the boy, but neither the school nor the Chicago Province took action to stop him.

“The boy was not abused while he was here but he was abused after he left us, after we had communicated our fears to [McGuire’s] Jesuit superiors,’’ Lawler said in a 2012 Globe interview. “That makes me livid.”

Years later, the Lawlers’ boarder notified law enforcement authorities about multiple incidents of abuse by McGuire during trips to other states and other countries, which led to federal charges of traveling in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act with a person under 18 — and led to McGuire’s 2008 criminal conviction." ...luding mentioning that Jesuit fathers Joseph Fessio — ironically, the publisher of the magazine Phil Lawler used to edit — and the late John Hardon, heroes to to orthodox Catholics, were part of the conspiracy of silence around McGuire. The Jesuits have known that he had a thing for boys since — are you ready for this? — 1964.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/sex-abuse-different-pope-same-strategy/

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/11/22/vatican-new-top-prosecutor-abusive-priests-implicated-past-failure-stop-notorious-abuser-donald-mcguire/gPaBPJUdvuTy5PSTl1j5sM/story.html

http://jesuits.org/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20140910101856

See if you can find anything about Gessinger on "Catholic Culture.com" which bought Lawler's web news service in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_World_News

Why did CC have to end Diogenes column in 2011 (funding from Catholic Church/Wuerl)?
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm

"They are always asking for money. Not just enough to run a website, but for salaries (100K for Jeff Mirus in 2011 ... In addition to salaries, money goes from Trinity Communications to Trinity Consulting and Domus Enterprises. ...Trinity Consulting is Jeff Mirus, too: http://www.corporationwiki.com/Virginia/Manassas/trin ity-consulting-inc/48969884.aspx. They got $88K in 2010

Domus Enterprises is Phil Lawler: http://www.manta.com/c/mm05w1d/domus-enterprises-inc. They got over $106,000 in 2011 Am I to understand that Jeff Mirus is making $188K a year running that site ?
http://www.fisheaters.com/forums/index.php?topic=3453755.0

Is MONEY why Lawler is hitting Neumeyr--who's been escorted by POLICE off CATHOLIC public property supported by our charitable contributes by sodomite Wuerl?
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1203

"A sunrise broken by gunfire on a school bus. An investigation as to the root cause of the gunfire suffocated. Wuerl let it be suffocated."
http://www.donaldwuerl.com/2012/05/wuerl-in-background-of-evil.html

Anonymous said...

What I meant in ref to "sede" sites was that they report the sodomite sex scandals whereas the so-called Catholic press, even Pewsitter, Remnant etc. don't report much of it --especially scandals happening in U.S.

Tancred said...

I'm tracking now.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Lawler reported to the parents what was going on w/this kid -- or just to the Jesuits.

Tancred said...

Did he report on it? Lawler pays himself hiw much every month and he still can't provide a clear picture of what's going on... I think that's partly intentional.