Abbey defends its handling of clergy offenses - St. Cloud Times, Aug. 10, 2006 — St. John's Abbey officials say the claims made Wednesday by a national advocacy group for clergy molestation victims are inaccurate. The group calls the abbey's eventual disclosure July 28 of allegations of sexual misconduct from the 1970s and 1980s "begrudging" and "reprehensible." "Our fear is that during these inexcusable delays by the abbey, other kids may have been hurt and were certainly put at risk," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, Mo. Clohessy is the national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, which had a news conference Wednesday outside a Catholic high school in St. Louis Park... Allegations against the Rev. Michael Bik were made in 1997 and involved two teen-age boys in the 1970s, before Bik joined the Catholic abbey and before his ordination... Bik was allowed to work at St. John's Preparatory School in Collegeville for five years after he was accused of sexual misconduct... Clohessy, a victim of sexual abuse by a cleric, said any information the Collegeville abbey has regarding sexual misconduct by its monks should be turned over to police... Bik, 57, and the Rev. Bruce Wollmering, 65, live in the monastery and work under restrictions "where their activities are guided by individual plans of accountability".. "We think common sense and common decency require that all information about suspected sex crimes should be given to independent officials in law enforcement... In 2004, Wollmering was accused by a St. John's University student of sexual misconduct that allegedly started in 1984...
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