MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times
David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 9, 2016
A former student at St. John’s Prep has sued the school, St. John’s Abbey, the Order of St. Benedict and the Rev. Michael Bik, accusing Bik of sexually abusing him in 1998.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges negligence in Prep School leaders allowing Bik to teach at the school 28 years after Bik abused two boys while he was a lay teacher at an Anoka school.
The lawsuit accuses Bik of abusing the boy, who was 15 or 16 in 1998, during preparations for the boy’s confirmation. The boy asked another abbey monk if what Bik was doing was necessary to prepare for his confirmation, and that monk told him no.
“Michael Bik promised to confirm him if he had sex with him,” said Jeffrey Anderson, the attorney suing the abbey, the Prep School and Bik.
“Michael Bik denies the allegations … and will defend against them vigorously,” the abbey said in a statement released Monday afternoon.
It accused Anderson of building a case against Bik using out-of-context snippets of one monk’s candid, subjective thoughts. Those thoughts are attributed to Brother Robin Pierzina, who wrote memos and work assessments of Bik before Bik was accepted into St. John’s Abbey to study for the priesthood.
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