FT. WAYNE/SOUTH BEND (IN)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
March 12, 2019
1–Fr. Gregory H. Poser was ordained for the Crosiers, a religious order, in 1975. He spent time in the archdioceses of St. Paul-Minneapolis MN and Chicago IL and the dioceses of Kalamazoo MI and St. Cloud MN. In 1991 he was transferred to Indonesia, where he lived and worked as a missionary for many years. In 2003 he returned to MN, where he worked at three parishes and a mission church. Fr. Poser was suspended from those assignments in May 2016, when the diocese received a report that he had sexually abused a minor when he was working at a Shoreview MN parish in the 1970s.
From 1979-82, he was at the Crosier House of Studies and from 1982-83 he was at the Crosier Retreat Center, both in Ft. Wayne. From 1983-84, he was at the Crosier Fathers & Brothers in Garrett Indiana.
http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Poser_Gregor_H_OSC.html
2–Fr. Vincent Arthur “Fr. Art” Yzermans was a St. Cloud MN diocesan priest, ordained in 1951. In addition to working in parishes throughout the diocese, he was also a writer, editor and a communications consultant during three sessions of Vatican II in Rome. In the mid-1960s, he was a press advisor to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington DC and the editor of a national Catholic paper, Our Sunday Visitor.
Fr. Yzermans struggled with alcoholism for which he was in and out of treatment more than a dozen times. In the mid 1970s, he spent a year in Santa Rosa CA, a year at St. Thomas College in Minneapolis, and later at a parish in Anchorage AK. He was on medical leave 1979-1984 before returning to St. Cloud. His name was among 33 released by the St. Cloud diocese in 2014 of clergy involved in incidents of likely claims of sexual abuse of minors. From 1967-69, he was at the Victory-Noll Motherhouse Novitiate Juniorate and College in Huntington Indiana.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Yzermans_Vincent_Arthur.htm
3–Fr. Harvey Lamothe was accused of sexually abusing at least one boy in the Manchester NH diocese between 1979-1985. He was named as an abuser in a 2002 civil settlement with several victims. From 1950-1951, he was at the Divine Heart Seminary in Donaldson Indiana.
http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Lamothe_Harvey.htm
4–Fr. Joseph F. Mika (aka Rev. Salvatore Mika) was accused in 2004 of having sexually abused a female student when he worked in Pulaski, WI in the 1950s. Mika “expressed sorrow” about the abuse, and his supervisers said he was under “appropriate restrictions.” From 1951-52, he was at Immaculate Conception of Lourdes Monastery in Cedar Lake IN.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Mika_Joseph_F_OFM.htm
5–Fr. John J. Gallen, who in 2018 was included on a list of credibly accused abusers by his Jesuit supervisors. He became an internationally known scholar and author who led seminars around the world on Catholic liturgy and worship.
In 1993, a man reported to his then-home diocese of Milwaukee that, when he was a 16-year-old altar boy in 1980 at a Toledo OH parish, Gallen sexually abused him. Gallen was at the parish in March 1980 to lead a week-long retreat. His accuser said Gallen touched him inappropriately and kissed him. The man said that Gallen later got his parents to allow him to help the priest with a move from Phoenix to Sacramento and that, during the trip, Gallen forced him into oral sex. Fr. Gallen’s accuser said he reported the abuse to two of his parish priests shortly thereafter, but that the priests did not believe him.
Fr. Gallen sent his accuser letters of apology for his behavior in 1993 and 1994. Gallen could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
From 1977-1979, he was the Director of Center for Pastoral Liturgy at Notre Dame.
http://image.jesuits.org/MIDWESTPROV/media/All_Pastoral_Assignments_of_Jesuits_on_Midwest_Jesuits-12-17-18_List_posted_21_Dec_2018.pdf
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Gallen_John_J_sj.htm
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