The story out of the St. Louis area today is an example of what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has termed "the drip-by-drip, never ending revelation about child sex abuse and the disastrous way it was handled."
In a recent release, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said that, according to a civil case filed in St. Louis County Court, Bryan Bacon was a 15-year-old student at Vianney High School in St. Louis in 1985 when Marianist Br. William Mueller cornered him with a knife and rubbed up against him.
The 71-year-old Mueller, now a resident of Texas, has been accused of abuse in 24 civil suits in three states, including allegations he that he used ether to render his former pupils unconscious.
Earlier this month St. Louis County Judge Barbara Wallace ordered that Mueller pay Bacon $500,000 for sexual abuse and/or battery. Today at 1:30 p.m. SNAP plans to picket outside the Marianists' St. Louis office (4425 W. Pine in the Central West End) to bring attention to the case. Vianney is a Marianist school.
Bacon, who now resides in Columbia, is also scheduled to be in attendance. SNAP hopes that Mueller will one day face criminal charges for his alleged abuse spanning some four decades.
The full story can be found here.
