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18 Files Released by St. John’s Abbey Show Accused Monks Allowed to Work Elsewhere Without Warning

By Elin Lindstrom January 19, 2016

St. John’s Abbey Releases Files of 18 Monks Accused of Sexual Abuse as Required by 2015 Settlement

Monks Were Allowed to Work Elsewhere After Abbey Received Abuse Reports, Including Minnesota Dioceses

Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston Have Yet to Release Their Files on Accused St. John’s Monks

(St. Paul, MN) – St. John’s Abbey today released personnel files of 18 of its monks who were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. The documents in the files show that several of these monks were allowed to work at other parishes and dioceses internationally, in the United States and in Minnesota, without warning to parishioners or the public in those locations, after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports about them.

Today’s release was required pursuant to the terms of the 2015 settlement of a sexual abuse lawsuit brought by Troy Bramlage against St. John’s Abbey and the Rev. Allen Tarlton, one of the 18 credibly accused monks. Nine of the 18 files were previously released publicly by Jeff Anderson and Associates, Bramlage’s attorneys, pursuant to the settlement in 2015. The files of the following credibly accused monks were released previously: Tarlton, Richard Eckroth, Tom Gillespie, Finian McDonald, Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Fran Hoefgen, Othmar Hohmann and Bruce Wollmering. The other nine monk files released today are those of Michael Bik, Brennan Maiers, Dunstan Moorse, James Phillips, Francisco Schulte, Andre Bennett, Dominic Keller, James Kelly and Pirmin Wendt.

The files show that multiple accused monks were allowed to work at other locations after the Abbey received abuse reports, including:

  • Hoefgen – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Diocese of Marquette, MI;
  • Hohmann – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud
  • Tarlton – Bahamas, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Archdiocese of Louisville;
  • Eckroth – Bahamas
  • Schulte – Bahamas, Rome, Mexico City, Oregon, Diocese of Crookston, Diocese of St. Cloud;
  • Moorse – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archdiocese of Santa Fe;
  • Maiers – Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of St. Cloud
“It is alarming that so many of these credibly accused monks were allowed to work at other parishes, dioceses and communities after St. John’s Abbey received abuse reports,” said Mike Finnegan, attorney for Bramlage. “Parishioners, parents, kids and communities were not warned about the monks’ abusive past. We urge the Dioceses of St. Cloud, Duluth and Crookston to release all files and documents on these monks and any other credibly accused priests.”