MO -- Victims praise ruling vs. Chaminade in child sex case

For immediate release: Wednesday, March 25

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, [email protected]

We are grateful that a judge is letting a child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit proceed against the Marianists, a St. Louis-based Catholic religious order that runs three local schools (Chaminade and Vianney in the county and St. Mary’s in the city).

The case involves Brother Louis J. Meinhardt who was at Chaminade for 30 years. He was publicly exposed as a child molesting cleric for the first time in 2012 and faces at least 15 accusers.

At least 31 members of the Marianists are proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters, according to an investigative report in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.  Of these 31 Marianists, at least eight worked or allegedly abused in St. Louis.

There are at least 157 accusers.

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6254673-74/catholic-north-abuse#axzz3CcmtI7Tu

And even now, the Marianists continue to protect predators. They include

– Fr. Charles H. Miller who assaulted a St. Louis girl and was quietly sent to Rome after allegations against him surfaced in St. Louis (and were deemed “credible” by church officials). He is still on the job in the literal and figurative power center of Catholicism, where millions of unsuspecting young people and their families visit every year. (Keep in mind: it takes only seconds for a priest to shove his tongue in a girl's mouth or his hand down a boy's pants.)

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2009_statements/021609_statement_by_snap_director_barbara_garcia-boehland.htm

– Fr. William Christensen who worked and abused in St. Louis and who's accused of molesting at least 30 kids in Bangladesh (and may still be there now).

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/01_02/2011_01_13_Townsend_PriestFrom.htm

--Br. William Mueller who worked and abused in St. Louis and who's accused of molesting dozens of kids in three states (and still lives in Texas now).

Catholic officials will stress that the latter two have been defrocked. But they've never shown evidence of this. And the Marianists have made no efforts whatsoever to help law enforcement pursue any of their clerics.

At least eight local Marianists have been publicly named as credibly accused pedophiles – Fr. Miller, Fr. Christensen, Fr. Robert R. Osborne, Brother Mueller, Fr. Daniel A. Triulzi, Brother Tony Pistone, Br. John Woulfe and Meinhardt. (All but Miller worked at Chaminade.) Abuse lawsuits have been settled against Triulzi, Osborne and Mueller.

Fr. Martin Solma and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to try to exploit legal loopholes to deny victims their day in court and help those who commit and conceal heinous crimes against children.

We are deeply grateful to the brave victims of these clerics, including Chris Wimmer of St. Louis and Bryan Bacon of Columbia, for their success in exposing the corruption in the Marianists and for protecting children from them.

We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes - by Marianists or other Catholic entities – to find the courage to call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])