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	Times Writers Group: Unfair Reporting Hurts St. John's By Eric Loehr St. Cloud Times May 9, 2011 http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110509/OPINION/105090029/Times-Writers-Group-Unfair-reporting-hurts-St-John-s Stereotyping affects Abbey members As a St. John's University student and soon to be alumnus, I can no longer sit silent to the current injustices done to the university and St. John's Abbey, carried out in the name of justice for those who were abused by specific St. John's Abbey community members. The truth deserves to be told, but the April 28 WCCO-TV report "Accused Of Sexual Abuse: The Monks Living Next Door" has no direction and only leads to the misplaced retributive abuse on current members of the St. John's community. Good people I graduate from St. John's in less than one week and will leave the place I spent most of my life so far. I began my journey here in the fourth grade, when I joined the St. John's Boys' Choir. Founded by Brother Paul Richards, the organization enlightened my passion for music and taught me Benedictine and Catholic values I will hold dear for a lifetime, including listening, respect for persons and hospitality. As a young boy, I was inspired by the St. John's Abbey monks and their strong dedication to their faith as well as their constant enthusiasm for our young and ambitious futures. Richards had a profound effect on my decision to attend St. John's for college after he invited another Cathedral High School student and choir alumnus and I to join the Abbey Schola, the monastery's choir. I have sung with the Abbey Schola since my junior year in high school and have grown to know the monastic members of the choir as good friends and mentors. These men are the best display of how to fulfill St. Benedict's call to become who we are by our relationships with others. Their faith is strong and they display the greatest amount of respect for my fellow students and I than any other members of the St. John's community. St. John's President the Rev. Robert Koopmann continues to teach me lessons of hospitality, taking time out of his hectic schedule to converse with me about graduate school and my final days at St. John's. Hospitality runs rampant within the St. John's Abbey and, as a music major, this is clear at student recitals, largely attended by the monks in support of the students. WCCO story My interests are fully invested as shown but prove far more relevant than those of a reporter running to the door of an accused abuser unannounced, expecting a sound-bite for news teaser. Not only did WCCO journalists bombard Brother John Kelly and Stephen Lilly at their homes, they ran Fran Hoefgen into his home after showing up at his workplace. I do not condemn the truth; I condemn the misrepresentation of that which defines the St. John's Abbey. From the misuse of predatory language to the disregard for the statute of limitations, the abuse cases have been portrayed in a biased and inappropriate way in WCCO's report, the language and tone of which are disturbing. The title of the piece bends the impression these men are still a predatory threat, while never acknowledging the date of the abuse cases. In addition, WCCO's only civilized interview conducted was with attorney Jeff Anderson, who only further stoked the alarming tone WCCO wanted to portray. Unbalanced Meanwhile, the opinions and projections of the current St. John's community are not reported, nor is the makeup of the relationship between monastic members and students. These are not two differing opinions but two elements to the issue that must be represented. Instead, the entire Abbey is portrayed as trying to cover up the truth. The public deserves to know the facts that continue to be released by the Abbey, which has acted in a comprehensive and forthright manner. It has released names and details while continuing to find resolution for cases that would likely outdate the legal statute of limitations. It is the current members of the Abbey whom the continued slander affects the most. For many viewers, readers and listeners, these reports are all they know of the St. John's community, and it is shameful. Letting these few individuals define one's perception of the entire St. John's Abbey is likened to any universal judgment. This stereotyping is oppressive and deprives the public of the talents and gifts of the men of the Abbey. The St. John's name does not deserve to be defamed and debased at the hands of significant but isolated acts of abuse. Monastic members, students, faculty and administration ought to be heard, and any reporting beyond the facts only demeans the institution and monastic community. This is the opinion of Eric Loehr, a student at St. John's University in Collegeville. His column is published the second Monday of the month.
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