MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates
JEFFREY R. ANDERSON
Saint Benedict said in the Rule of Benedict that we are to listen with the ear of our heart.
Considerable commentary has been spoken and written of the 22 monks of Saint John’s Abbey accused of sexually abusing minors. None, however, demonstrates the misuse of therapists to cover up Saint John’s knowledge of child sexual abuse more than the case of Reverend Allen (Gilbert) Tarlton OSB.
Five successive Abbots have known since 1958 that Father Allen repeatedly sexually abused students at Saint John’s Prep and Saint John’s University. To squelch the scandal of monks abusing students, time and time again Father Tarlton was whisked away to treatment under the cover of alcohol problems.
This was not the real story. In fact, Father Allen told Abbot Baldwin Dworshak OSB in a 1965 letter that the psychiatrist of Sartel suggested he be laicized.
What did the Abbots do?
The Abbots of Saint John’s continued to camouflage their knowledge of Father Allen’s conduct by sending him to various Catholic doctors, therapists and psychiatric facilities such as Seton Psychiatric Institute, Servants of the Paraclete and the Saint Luke Institute.
Father Allen treated with the Catholic elite such as Dr. Leo Bartemeier at Seton and Father Michael Peterson M.D. at St. Luke Institute.
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