Collegeville Modernist Meets with Soho Dissidents, Accuses Rome of Lying

Soho is Part of Greenwich

"Our system is not set up to tell the truth. It is not possible for those doing the work to say to those in charge 'this isn't working,'" -Father Anthony Ruff OSB

Edit: Father Ruff is the administrator of the haughty little "Pray, Tell" blog where people can go and commiserate the decline and inevitable fall of the Liturgical Renewal and new man-centered theology. "Rome" can be heard, almost audibly, saying, "you're accusing us of lying and bad faith?"

We've heard earlier this week about how Collegeville is cutting its ties with its lay run University. When are they going to admit they have nothing in common with Rome? They've already got an Episcopal Prayer Center where they host syncretistic gatherings. Why not admit the obvious and have some integrity? We also ask those at St. John's, where is Josh Guimond?

This current issue reported by the National Catholic Register is about a conference held in the trendy Greenwich Village, Episcopalian church of all places. This is simply another case of an effeminate Old Liberal Liturgist, bemoaning the fact that things aren't going the way of his narcissistic, progressive and increasingly unfashionable Marxist, disobedient, viewpoint, but it also serves to illustrate what we've been saying about St. John's Abbey at Collegeville forever.

If anyone had any doubts about the quality of this byproduct of the Liturgical Renewal up until this point, and the entire process surrounding ICEL, the fact that he spoke at a Call to Action conference, attacking the renovation of the English translation of the Missal, and the people who pay for his upkeep, should remove all doubt. He even goes so far as to tell us his true political allegiances, which are at least associated with Marxism which is merited by his self-description as a fellow traveler and disordered preoccupation with structural "injustice":

"I would love to belong to a community that was working for the transformation of unjust structures in church and society as well as offering direct outreach to the victims of oppression," he said. "But this fantasy religious community would also pray the entire office in Latin chant. So, I'm not sure I'm going to find many fellow travelers.[Emphasis ours]"

If he wants a posh liturgy with Latin chant and a trendy political ideology that wants to worry about "structure" and "superstructure" instead of one's own imperfections and unworthiness before the Godhead, he could become an Anglican. Assuming that he shares CTA's views, he could even concelebrate "Mass" with Bishopess Regina.

His apparent turn to the left aside, that First Things would have anything to do with Modernist Collegeville in the first place raises at least one eyebrow, but now we know about the "Pray, Tell" blog, or should know by now if you didn't before, that it's another byproduct of the disease which ails us in the Post-Conciliar malaise.

Take a look at the comments section and see the complaints about how Rome can't be trusted and so forth. The usual concerns by grey-haired denizens of sixty-eight about how Rome "can't tell the truth". As Father Ruff laments:

"Our system is not set up to tell the truth. It is not possible for those doing the work to say to those in charge 'this isn't working,'"

What's not working is the mentality of a man-centered theological and Liturgical course of the last twenty years. Father Ruff has been working like a termite throughout his career as a Liturgist, undermining and gnawing a way. But now he mercifully admits that he no longer believes. In what, we ask.

[National Catholic Reporter] The last time Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, came to New York, he was visiting with an editor from First Things, a theologically and politically conservative journal founded by the late Richard John Neuhaus, six years ago.

Ruff recently returned to Manhattan to offer the first presentation sponsored by the newly formed New York City chapter of Call to Action. Since CTA groups are rarely allowed to meet on Roman Catholic property, Ruff gave the lecture in the common room of an Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village.

This radical change of scene isn't the only transformation that has marked Ruff's life in the last six years.

Link to CTA....

Photo credit.

Gomorrist Bible Presented on Today Show

Ugly as Sin

Edit: This just came in from Pine Curtain. Although Father Koopman of St. John's Abbey was supposed to have been interviewed, he was not. Instead they interviewed the Atheist craftsman they hired to decorate the book with authentic materials. They are certainly scaling back their visibility.

The press about the Bible falsely indicates that the St. John's Bible is the first such project in over five hundred years. On the contrary, there have been illustrated Bibles since then, going all the way up to the present day, long before St. John's got the idea to outsource their scriptorium work to an Atheist calligrapher using a poor translation of the Bible. The New Standard Revised Version of the Bible is, like Collegeville's insistence that it is a Catholic institution in good standing, rather dubious.

Here's an example from Luke 1:28

And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."

This poor translation partakes of the mendacious theology of Martin Luther and undermines the dogma of Mary's sinlessness. Luther feels, like the Old Liberal Bishop Donald Trautman, that the German will be confused by the correct translation and think of a "beer cask". It should read:

"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee.

This is but one example where the NRSV falls short, but there are many, many more.


Not to be completely uncontroversial, Morning News was able to reveal the face of one of the perpetrators, Brother Jim Phillips, appears in the video.

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Another Accusation Against Father Dan Ward at Collegeville

Fr. Dan Ward

Edit: What lies are there which continue to be revealed as the Modernist Monastery's decaying and dying structures spread their contagion.  Monks who do not believe or practice the Church's teachings on sexual morality and personal conduct are protected and continue their collective task as agents of demoralization?

In the battle against what we call Cultural Marxism there are almost no active or coordinated opponents of this that we know of, although it's much discussed. All of the combatants are isolated from one another, linked by a common experience or an understanding of Cultural Marxism and its effects.  Cultural Marxism is dangerous because it teaches that there are no personal sins, only collective ones and it stands by it central dogma that "there is no such thing as objectivity or truth".  The term is better understood by its links especially to the Frankfurt School and Modern Psychoanalysis. But despite all of the evidence and warnings around and about, there is practically no response from the churches, indeed, they are often proponents of Cultural Marxism. While  Pope Benedict will decry the "Dictatorship of Relativism" there are all too few religious leaders in the Catholic Church who take him seriously; a diabolical delusion has certainly taken hold. An individual who finds himself confronted by its various manifestations doesn't know where to turn; he can seek legal aid, but it's an uphill battle, because one of the hallmarks of this social disease is that it's extremely difficult to make a coherent defense against it, because many people won't accept reasoned defenses, so far have its inroads been made into education where the values of truth and honor have been replaced by Social Justice and uncritical "tolerance". Some even  turn to their churches for counsel against this ideology, but in many cases, their church has long ago succumbed, and the Cultural Marxist will have been long in place, spreading the spiritual and intellectual torpor and demoralizing the society at large.

In this particular case, we have a Modernist Monastery -- whose legal counsel is a credibly accused predator, Father Dan Ward -- which is a widely trusted institution,  thought to be forthright in its mission, but we discover not only that they are false, but when questioned about unjust and plainly immoral behavior, they will  dismiss and deflect the concerns.  Some victims have even  found themselves being threatened.  All of this has happened at Collegeville. Their very profession as religious is itself a walking contradiction where they are permitted and frequently  promote homosexuality, sexual depravity and Social Justice in the name of the Catholic Religion and their profession as Benedictine Monks.

This philosophical attack, classically represented by Collegeville's monastics, has been with us for a long time. For Modernism has been a problem in the Catholic Church dating long before its actual condemnation by St. Pius X in his encyclical Lamaentabili Sane. Despite this condemnation and the perpetual condemnation of the Church for the false doctrines promoted at Collegeville. Modernism and its manifestations in the aforementioned Liberal schools of thought, has as their roots, the continental philosophical, humanist tradition expressed by Empiricist, Nominalist and Atheist thinkers of the last three Centuries.

Those seedlings which have shot up from fragile seeds of error have chocked out the furrows of a once plentiful field and turned them into an overgrown wasteland, increasingly remote to the principles which guided the organization in the first place.

St. John's has numerous complaints against it, including against its leadership, notably Abbot Eidenschenk who would interview his novices in the nude. These accusations stretch back decades but most have taken place in the eighties and indicate that from the top down, there was a culture of homosexual depravity to also include also Abbot Timothy Kelly who was himself responsible for disciplining these individuals and seems to have looked the other way because he too was as corrupt as the men being accused.  It's also a matter of fact that someone in administration was tampering with the personal files of the various accused.

St. John's attorney, Father Dan Ward, has also been substantially accused of being a homosexual predator. When one of his victims approached the Abbot, Jerome, he was told to "grow up".

This account will be familiar to some. Many left-leaning, homosexual clergy have talked about the importance of "being sexually mature".

It is interesting to note that Father Dan Ward was the man responsible for stage handling the mostly ineffective and now defunct Institute for Sexual Trauma [Interfaith is always a bad sign.  There's only one true Faith.] which was apparently set up for the fox to watch the chickens.  His other activities, when he's not betraying the Catholic Faith, include helping women religious avoid living their lives in a legitimate fashion as director of the Resource Center for Religious Institutes..  This article is from Catholic Culture entitled, "In Denial". 

Here's the most recent report about Father Dan Ward's alleged sexual activities from the Pine Curtain:

Fr. Dan Ward believed that a well-rounded and mature monastic needed to have an open-minded view of sexuality. The conversation started to become more physical as he began to be aroused by the topic.[Sounds familiar]

I rejected his advances and strong sexual initiatives.

I immediately left his room and went and got sick.

The next morning I went to see XXXXXX and told him of the incident. His response simply was to get over it that Father Ward has great power … [He does actually.  He runs a well-endowed non-profit]  and if I wish to continue being a monastic I would just have to accept his behavior.

I spoke to XXXXXX privately about the encounter. He told me it was a confessional issue and I needed to grow up and deal with my sexuality.

[Webmaster's Note: This is an excerpt from the fourth statement received from a victim of Dan Ward's misconduct. Excerpts from the first three statements are available here.]

Note that the complaining monk's counselor didn't deny that Father Ward is what he is, but that you just have to live with it.

Pine Curtain, here. 

We Still Remember

 Josh Guimond, 20, left a small card party at friend Nate Slinkard's Metten Court apartment on the St. John's University campus in Collegeville, MN sometime around midnight on November 9, 2002. His friends believed he was just making a trip to the bathroom, but when he did not come back after 15 minutes, they assumed he had just walked back to his dorm room at St. Maur House. It was a three minute walk, but he never made it home. He has not been seen since. While there was some drinking at the party, friends say Josh Guimond was not inebriated when he left.

Alleged Sexual Misconduct by Fr. Mel Taylor at Modernist Monastery

Edit: Father Taylor is an alleged Benedictine who was once active at the Modernist Monastery of Collegeville in Minnesota.  He is presently in the Bahamas, according to the Pine Curtain.  He was born in Sligo, Ireland.  This priest was occasionally and very publicly drunk, he was overly friendly on occasion with the students, especially when he was drunk, occasionally wrestling with them which was odd in a way, but there were times when it was downright embarrassing to see him embrace a boy and cherish him in his arms. He was Residency Dean in the Dormitories and as intelligent, streetwise and vigilant as he was, you'd have to be paid handsomely not to believe he wasn't aware of Father Dunstan Moorse, Father Allan Tarelton, Brother John Kelly's homosexual predations.

One student in particular would frequently come to Father Moorse's bedroom suite and even had a key. This student was, it was said, suffering from a profound personal loss.

The student was frequently seen unlocking Father Moorse's door and letting himself in at various hours of the day and night as he passed through  the common areas.  Father Moorse has multiple accusers.  Here's the story sent to the Pine Curtain:

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

Fr. Mel Taylor used his master key to enter my locked dorm room without my permission. Looking back, I am certain that Fr. Mel knew I was in the room and in my bed enjoying some “private time.” I believe this to be true because he unlocked my door, entered, locked the door and was sitting on my bed … before I was even able to fully pull up my underwear.

Statement from Victim of Fr. Mel Taylor
June 29, 2011
My name is XXXXXX. I am XX years old and currently live in XXXXXX.
Part of my high school education was spent at St. John’s Preparatory School in Collegeville, Minnesota. While attending the “Prep School” in the early 1980s, I lived in the dormitory with dozens of other male Prep School students.

Fr. Mel Taylor, a monk from Saint John’s Abbey, was one of several adult male supervisors, or “prefects”, who lived in a separate section of the dormitory building. During my junior year, Fr. Mel’s official title was “Residency Dean.”

On one occasion during my junior year, Fr. Mel Taylor used his master key to enter my locked dorm room without my permission. Looking back, I am certain that Fr. Mel knew I was in the room and in my bed enjoying some “private time.” I believe this to be true because he unlocked my door, entered, locked the door and was sitting on my bed, all in a matter of seconds. Precisely, before I was even able to fully pull up my underwear.

When Fr. Mel sat down, I was sitting up in the bed without a shirt and had the sheet up to my waist. Fr. Mel began rubbing my chest and then my nipples. He was obviously trying to keep me aroused. He must have sensed that I was uncomfortable because he kept saying things like: “relax” “calm down” “this is ok” and “you are too tense”.

It was difficult for me to react to Fr. Mel’s advances (given his position as priest and prefect) and it took me a few moments to process what was happening. It was clear that Fr. Mel was trying to convince me that his homosexual advances were something I desired though I had never before, nor since, desired such contact. Fr. Mel continued to touch me and it was apparent that he was working himself up to something I knew I did not want.

When I finally did react, I pushed Fr. Mel off the bed. I got out of the bed, with Fr. Mel facing me, and pulled up my underwear. When Fr. Mel didn’t leave, I pushed him physically toward and out of the door.

I never reported this before. I was too embarrassed to deal with the incident or talk about it at the time.

After the incident, I had many questions. Did I do something to provoke Fr. Mel? Why did he choose me? How did he know what I was doing in the room?

At the end of my junior year, I was asked to not return to the Prep School. No specific reason was given other than I was a not a positive influence in the community. I believe that Fr. Mel was part of that decision process. I was allowed to return for my senior year, though under a performance contract.

Fr. Mel Taylor did not return as Residency Dean for my senior year. There were rumors about Fr. Mel’s drinking and about the special attention he paid to his favorite students.

During my senior year, I became more rebellious. My issues with authority increased and I was ultimately kicked out of the school. I graduated from XXXXXXX High School in 19XX.
I cannot help but wonder how many other students were victim to Fr. Mel’s inappropriate homosexual advances — and how many of those young men weren’t able to react in time. And I still wonder how he was able to know what I was doing in the privacy of my own room.
When I found out that Fr. Mel Taylor was still an active priest (in the Bahamas) I felt compelled to tell my story. Fr. Mel Taylor should have been removed from ministry a long time ago.
It has taken years for me to start addressing the issues Fr. Mel created for me. I do not wish this pain or confusion on anyone.
Name Removed

Phone Removed


Regarding Misconduct by Fr. Mel Taylor