An advocacy group simultaneously called for an investigation of Cretin Derham-Hall High School’s principal for releasing a previous alleged victim’s name.
The former student, identified in court papers as John Doe 129, accuses Brother Charles Anthony (Raimond) Rose of abusing him in 1968.
The suit, filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court, also accuses the Chicago-based Christian Brothers of the Midwest, Christian Brothers of Minnesota and the school, now called Cretin-Derham Hall, of fraud for allowing Rose to teach there two years after he was reported to have sexually abused a student at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Thursday for the church’s National Review Board to investigate Cretin-Derham Hall’s principal for releasing the name of an alleged victim who filed a previous suit.
That former student sued Rose last month, for abuse he said occurred in 1970. The former De La Salle student sued him in February.
Rose is retired and living in Chicago. In 2003, he was named in a suit charging that he molested a student in California in 1982. That case was settled out of court for $1.1 million.
Thursday’s suit said Rose “engaged in unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact” with the then 16- or 17-year-old. It happened at Dunrovin Christian Brothers Retreat Center in Marine on St. Croix, Minn., according to the suit. The plaintiff asked for damages in excess of $50,000, plus attorneys fees.
In the wake of the lawsuits, Cretin-Derham Hall Principal Richard Engler released the name of the former student who filed the second suit. He made the disclosure in a letter to current and prospective students and to members of the school’s advisory council, alerting them to the lawsuit.
In an interview last month, Engler said he had wanted to be transparent and feared the name would first be reported in the media. He insisted he acted without ill will.
Last month SNAP urged St. Paul’s Catholic bishop to discipline Engler, but a spokesman for the archdiocese said the institution had no control over the school’s day-to-day affairs.
Minnesota SNAP director Bob Schwiderski charged that the plaintiff’s name was divulged in an attempt to silence other potential victims. He asked the National Review Board, a Catholic church panel overseeing the sex abuse crisis, to investigate Engler.
Schwiderski said SNAP does not necessarily want Engler fired. Rather, he said, the organization would like the school to do more to prevent sexual abuse, such as inviting recovering victims to speak with students.
“If we can learn from our mistakes and do the right thing, I’d be more than happy with that,” he said. “I’m not out to destroy Cretin. Cretin’s a good school.”