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We are saddened and disheartened to hear news of yet another situation of a failure of a school to protect its children. The news today that Tajreed E. Rich, a hall monitor and coach at Robbinsdale Cooper High School, who had also worked as a volunteer cheerleading coach at North High School, was charged with third degree criminal sexual assault of a minor is alarming and tragically familiar.  School districts and their employees need to be better trained in child protection and prevention of abuse to ensure the safety of our kids at school. We urge Cooper High School, North High School...

This week yet another Minnesota priest was arrested for sexually abusing a child.  Father Leo Charles Koppala, of Blue Earth, Minnesota, has been charged with the sexual abuse of an 11-year old girl.  Father Koppala is a priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church.  His arrest is a stark reminder of the continued vulnerability of our youth to child predators, including clergy. American Catholic Bishops are fond of categorizing the sexual abuse of children by clergy as a historic problem...

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...