By Cara Spoto
Wausau Daily Herald
September 1, 2009
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20090901/WDH0101/909010466/1981/WDHopinion
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| A photo of Brother Raimond Rose, a Christian Brother who is accused of sexual abuse of students at several of the schools at which he taught, is shown during a press conference Monday morning outside Pacelli High School, where he taught for one year. |
STEVENS POINT -- A teacher accused of sexually abusing students at Catholic schools in Minnesota during the 1970s taught at Pacelli High School, according to the teaching order that administered the school at the time.
Brother Francis Carr, Provincial Superior of the Christian Brothers of the Midwest, said Monday that Brother Raimond Rose, an ordained member of the Roman Catholic order, worked at the school from 1969 to 1970.
A lawsuit filed in Ramsey County, Minn., this spring against the Christian Brothers of Midwest, The Christian Brothers of Minnesota and Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn., claims Rose sexually abused a student in 1970 while employed by the order. In the suit, the plaintiff, named only as John Doe 128, claims that when he was 15 or 16 years old, Rose sexually abused him while the two were at Dunrovin Christian Brothers Retreat Center in St. Croix, Minn.
The lawsuit claims the plaintiff was defrauded by the Christian Brothers, alleging that Christian Brothers officials learned in 1966 that Rose had sexually abused a student at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, but took "no steps to investigate the misconduct or prevent further sexual abuse by Rose."
Rose was assigned to what was then Cretin High School in 1970 following his time at Pacelli, Carr said.
Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools President Jim Dyer said Monday that the organization could neither confirm nor deny that Rose ever taught at Pacelli High School, but that it still is investigating the matter. The organization also issued a written statement, asking anyone with a complaint to contact the school directly.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that counsels people who have been sexually abused by clergy, held a news conference in front of Pacelli on Monday to encourage anyone who might have been abused by Rose during his time at the school to come forward. Flanked by two priest-abuse victims, Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota Director of SNAP, also asked school officials to reach out to potential victims.
"We are asking those that were abused or know of sexual abuse by Raimond Rose, here or any place else in Wisconsin, to dial 911 and report it. We also encourage those that may have been sexually abused by Raimond Rose to seek legal advice," Schwiderski said.
Schwiderski said he has heard from four former Pacelli students who said they were abused by Rose.
Carr said Rose, 76, has not been in active ministry since 2002, and now lives in a brothers' community in Chicago. The community is less than two blocks from the order's Chicago De La Salle High School, but Carr said Rose is being supervised.
"What value is it to let them go? We have no control at all then," Carr said. "If he did do these things I don't agree with it, but you don't put him out on the street."
Carr said he has advised the former teacher not speak with the media.
Carr added that the order, which provides faculty to high schools and colleges throughout the country, has made strides in recent years to screen would-be members.
Brenda Varga of Plover, and Daniel Kortenkamp of Stevens Point, who stood next to Schwiderski during the news conference, said they hope Rose's victims come forward so they can begin to heal. A priest in Iowa sexually abused Kortenkamp when he was 13. Varga was sexually abused by a priest at a wedding when she was 9. She said that before the Boston priest abuse scandal broke in 2002, she thought she was the only one who had ever been sexually abused by a priest.
"In order to begin the healing process you must break your silence," Varga said. "That's what helped me start to heal."
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