IL-Notorious southern IL predator priest dies; Victims respond
For immediate release: Wednesday, July 20
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home,[email protected])
Local Catholic officials have kept hidden the passing of Robert J. Vonnahmen, one of Southern Illinois' most notorious pedophile priests. For decades, he
--ran a camp in Johnson County that attracted thousands of kids from across the Midwest,
--headed a Madison County-based tour and travel agency,
--worked in several southern Illinois parishes, and
--lived in Hardin County in what the Belleville News Democrat called “a sprawling, 2,600 square foot, $350,000 Mediterranean-style villa high above the Ohio River.”
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2003_01_26_Pawlaczyk_OustedPriest_Robert_Vonnahmen_11.htm
A long time Golconda resident, he died in a nursing home in Highland Illinois on, or near, May 9 and his Catholic funeral was apparently held on May 12 in Elizabethtown Illinois where he was buried.
In an unusual situation, Vonnahmen ran the San Damiano Shrine (618 285 3507, 618 695 2489, [email protected]) in Pope County and the Swansea-based Golden Frontier Travel (618-234-1445).
At least three bishops and dozens of Catholic officials ignored and enabled Vonnahmen's crimes for decades. He was one of Illinois' most egregious predators.
As recently as 2013, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson let Vonnahmen run ads in the Archdiocesan newspaper for the San Damiano Shrine which the defrocked child molester operated even though the Vatican defrocked Vonnahmen seven years earlier.
And as recently as 2014, another victim filed a civil abuse and cover up suit against Vonnahmen and his supervisors.
http://www.bnd.com/2014/04/01/3139797/breese-man-alleges-catholic-priest.html?sp=/99/166/
We call on Belleville Bishop Braxton to spread the word of Vonnahmen’s death through church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements and beg others who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes to come forward.
And we call on Carlson to apologize for and explain his reckless support of this serial predator. How does he justify encouraging local Catholics, through the St. Louis Review newspaper, to visit and donate to a facility run by a proven predator?
Once again, Catholic officials stay silent about a predator. Once again, the feelings of his victims are disregarded while the comfort of his bishop is protected. The people Vonnahmen violated deserve to know that he can no longer hurt anyone. We hope his passing will bring some comfort to those he assaulted and betrayed.
We hope his passing will prompt others he hurt to finally get help, speak out and start healing.
No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.
Vonnahmen co-founded the camp in 1959 and ran it until he was removed as director in 1985. The Belleville diocese removed him from the ministry in 1993 because of child sex abuse reports. The Vatican defrocked him in 2007.
In 2007, the News Democrat reported that:
“Vonnahmen formerly led Camp Ondessonk (877-659-2267) in Southern Illinois (from the late 50s to the mid-80s), a popular Catholic children's summer camp. He also operated Golden Frontier Tours through a nonprofit operation called Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage Inc., which also operates a 2,500-acre shrine and resort — San Damiano — near Golconda in Pope County.”
“While Vonnahmen has said he is retired from the tour and shrine business, Pope County assessor's clerk Maureen Stafford said the laicized priest still resides in a tax-exempt $350,000 villa overlooking the Ohio River on the San Damiano retreat's grounds. Employees who answered the telephones at the retreat and at the travel business in Shiloh, said that Vonnahmen is seen regularly at both locations.”
Finally, our hearts go out especially to Stephen McCaffrey, who in the 1990s was the first to publicly discuss his abuse by Vonnahmen and file a federal court against him. The suit was dismissed in 1995 because of Illinois’ restrictive and predator-friendly statute of limitations.
(NOTE – Virtually every reference to Vonnahmen has been deleted. He’s mentioned briefly once on the Camp Ondessonk site:https://ondessonk.com/the-building-of-a-camp-1959/ But considerable information is available about him at BishopAccountability.org)
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 22,000 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])
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director