The Newsleaders
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Sartell – St. Stephen
    • St. Joseph
    • 2024 Elections
    • Police Blotter
    • Most Wanted
  • Opinion
    • Column
    • Editorial
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Community
    • Graduation 2025
    • Calendar
    • Criers
    • People
    • Public Notices
    • Sports & Activities Schedules
  • Obituaries
    • Obituary
    • Funerals/Visitations
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • Sartell-St. Stephen Archive
    • St. Joseph Archive
  • Advertise With Us
    • Print Advertising
    • Digital Advertising
    • Promotions
    • Pay My Invoice
  • Resource Guides
    • 2024 St. Joseph Annual Resource Guide
    • 2025 Sartell Spring Resource Guide
    • 2024 Sartell Fall Resource Guide
The Newsleaders
No Result
View All Result

Pediatric/Welch St Cloud Ortho
Home News

Abbey releases list of 18 ‘credibly’ accused clergy

Dennis Dalman by Dennis Dalman
December 18, 2013
in News, St. Joseph
0
0
SHARES
1
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

by Dennis Dalman

news@thenewsleaders.com

A list of 18 St. John’s Abbey priests or monks, living and deceased, has been released by the Abbey. All men on the list, which was released Dec. 9, are those who have been “credibly” accused of sexual misconduct.

The list’s release was in response to a lawsuit filed recently against a former monk who is accused of repeatedly molesting boys years ago. Part of the lawsuit called upon St. John’s Abbey to release a list of “credibly” accused monks and priests, past or present. The monk, Fr. Francis Hoefgen, is accused by a man known as “Doe 27” of sexually abusing him when he was a boy in the Hastings Catholic parish. In 1983, Hoefgen, who was serving in Cold Spring’s St. Boniface at that time, was accused of abusing a boy in that city. No legal proceedings followed that charge. Hoefgen is no longer a priest or monk and lives in Minneapolis.

The release of the list by St. John’s Abbey came just a week after the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis released a similar list containing 34 priests. The names of three former St. John’s Abbey priests were on that list: Hoefgen, Cosmas Dahlheimer and Brennan Maiers.

The names on the lists do not mean necessarily that those men sexually abused young people. Rather, the lists’ names are those of priests or monks who have been “credibly” accused of such illegal conduct. Some had been accused of watching pornography via the Internet or of having improper behavior with another adult.

St. John’s Abbey, again under pressure, years earlier released the names of priests and monks back in 2002 and again in 2011.

Brother Aelred Senna, a spokesman for the abbey, said the list is the best effort to identify those who “likely” made offenses against minors, even though some complaints could not be substantiated. He said placing their names on the list was a way for the Abbey to “acknowledge pain suffered by victims.”

In a similar development, a lawsuit filed Dec. 9 against a priest in Duluth is calling on that diocese to release the names of 17 priests accused of molesting minors. The lawsuit was filed by a man who claims he was sexually abused when he was a boy in that diocese in the 1970s.

A legislative change earlier this year removed the statute of limitations on sexual-abuse cases involving minors – thus, the spate of recent lawsuits by men who claim they’d been abused by clergy as long as 20 and 30 years ago.

Nine of the monks on the St. John’s Abbey list are living there under supervised plans that forbid them contact with minors. Seven of the men named on the list are deceased and two are no longer members of the clergy and no longer have anything to do with the abbey.

Jeff Anderson of Anderson and Associates, Twin Cities, is one of the world’s best-known attorneys who prosecutes cases of clergy abuse of children, including the case filed against Hoefgen.

“The release of this (abbey) list is a big step forward,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do, and it’s never too late to do the right thing. We are glad St. John’s released the list so communities are safer. This disclosure helps us and the survivors come together because we all want the same thing – for kids to be protected and the truth to be known. This action is a step in that direction.”

Anderson and his clients have almost always included in their lawsuits a demand that lists of offenders be published.

The names of the “likely” and “credible” offenders on the St. John’s Abbey list are the following:

Those who are living: Michael Bik, Richard Eckroth, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen (no longer a monk at the abbey), John Kelly (no longer a monk at the abbey), Maiers, Finian McDonald, Dunstan Moorse, James Phillips, Francisco Schulte and Allen Tarlton.

Those who are deceased: Andre Bennett, Robert Blumeyer, Dahlheimer, Othmar Hohmann, Dominic Keller, Pirmin Wendt and Bruce Wollmering.

Previous Post

‘Give a Touch of Hope’

Next Post

All Saints Academy to present ‘Legend of the Christmas King’

Dennis Dalman

Dennis Dalman

Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.

Next Post

All Saints Academy to present 'Legend of the Christmas King'

Please login to join discussion

Meshbesher & Spence Collegeville Murphy Granite

Trobec's Bus WACOSA MBOTMA

Search

No Result
View All Result

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Woman found guilty in exploitation case
  • Mother-daughter duo opens fabric store
  • Sartell man sentenced for bilking, swindling
  • Dynamic innovator Doyscher-Domres retires
  • RSVP members help strengthen community

City Links

Sartell
St. Joseph
St. Stephen

School District Links

Sartell-St. Stephen school district
St. Cloud school district

Chamber Links

Sartell Chamber
St. Joseph Chamber

Community

Calendar

Citizen Spotlight

Criers

People

Notices

Funerals/Visitions

Obituary

Police Blotter

Public Notices

Support Groups

About Us

Contact Us

News Tips

Submissions

Advertise With Us

Print Advertising

Digital Advertising

2024 Promotions

Local Advertising Rates

National Advertising Rates

© 2025 Newleaders

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Sartell – St. Stephen
    • St. Joseph
    • 2024 Elections
    • Police Blotter
    • Most Wanted
  • Opinion
    • Column
    • Editorial
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Community
    • Graduation 2025
    • Calendar
    • Criers
    • People
    • Public Notices
    • Sports & Activities Schedules
  • Obituaries
    • Obituary
    • Funerals/Visitations
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • Sartell-St. Stephen Archive
    • St. Joseph Archive
  • Advertise With Us
    • Print Advertising
    • Digital Advertising
    • Promotions
    • Pay My Invoice
  • Resource Guides
    • 2024 St. Joseph Annual Resource Guide
    • 2025 Sartell Spring Resource Guide
    • 2024 Sartell Fall Resource Guide

© 2025 Newleaders