Advertising
Supported by
David Haas, a composer known for “Blest Are They,” “We Are Called,” “You Are Mine” and his favorites, has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment across several women, according to a defense group.
By Marie Fazio
Several Catholic archdiocesees have banned a well-known liturgical composer from performing in his churches and many others have stopped betting his music after dozens of women accused him of sexual harassment and conduct for more than 40 years.
The accusations against the composer, David Haas, 63, come with harassment and cyberbullying, obscene proposals, forced kisses and trial and error, and other unwanted sexual behaviors, according to the allegations through 38 women compiled through Into Account, a survivor defense. Group. The New York Times interviewed six of the women.
Many women aspired to liturgical music or composers of which Haas was a mentor and said they feared retaliation if they spoke earlier. One described him as a “rock star in the Catholic liturgical field” who created his own rules.
After several approached Into Account with accusations, the organization sent a letter to church leaders, editors, and some of their liturgical peers in May, said Stephanie Krehbiel, the group’s executive director, who added that it continues to move forward.
No court cases have been filed by criminals or civilians, but about a third of the 32 archdiocese of the U.S. say they stopped Haas’ music after being alerted to the june allegations through the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he lives. Some still gave recommendations to local parishes as recently as last week.
The composer rejected the Times’ repeated requests for an interview through his lawyer. After telling the Catholic media that the allegations were “false, reckless and offensive,” Haas posted an apology on his online page in July. “As I sincerely apologize, I realize that many would possibly assume that all the accusations that are opposed to me are true,” he wrote. “I accept this threat without hesitation, because I literally need to apologize for the destructive things I did.”
The accusations have shaken the united world of Christian liturgical music. Mr. Haas is known for his fresh compositions, adding “Blest Are They”, “We Are Called” and “You Are Mine”, presented in popular anthem denominations.
“There is hardly any hymn that comes with Haas songs and mass ensembles,” said Peter Kwasniewski, a Catholic theologian and composer of sacred music. “It is no exaggeration to say that it helped shape the post-Vatican II music scene in the United States.”
Since the indictments, prominent liturgical publishers OCP and GIA Publications have broken their ties to him. His music is also drawn from the latest edition of “Voices Together”, a Mennonite anthem.
One accuser, Susan Bruhl, 54, told The Times that she met Mr. Haas after twenty-something years when he was the music director of her parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, in St. Paul Park, Minnesota.
“David has this ability to locate women who don’t have a father at home, who may come from a violent environment, or who have been neglected,” he said.
Mr. Haas spent a lot of time at home while she was in high school, she said, and shortly after graduating in 1984, invited her to lunch for a 18th birthday celebration. He took her to a Mexican restaurant next to a Red Roof Inn and ordered several giant daisies.
After the meal, he took her in his arms and said, “I have a room for us, let’s continue the party, a woman now and she’ll bring us closer,” Bruhl recalls. She turned him down.
At the time, she trusted a cousin, who showed The Times that she had been informed.
“In fact, I think I’m the only one, so I buried him in shame, self-deprecation and doubts about my perception,” he said. “I saw him as an older brother.
Another woman, Bex Gaunt, 32, sang Mr. Haas’s music long before she met him as a teenager at Music Ministry Alive, a music camp in St. Paul, Minnesota, which Mr. Haas founded in 1999. He camped for 3 years and worked for six years, he said.
“I was 14 when I fell in love with him,” Ms. Gaunt said, describing how she was “willing to do anything for him.”
While applying for Haas, Gaunt said, he “treated me as his maid, his maid” and asked him to leave his basement blank, run errands and perform other tasks, despite his leadership and musical distinctions. When confronted, she said that he responded by congratulating her physical appearance, an interaction she considered sexual harassment.
The Times interviewed four other accusers on the condition that they were not appointed because they feared retaliation. A woman, working as a music director for a parish, said Haas had sent her messages outside the dots on Facebook, adding requests for her to design a “chic and sexy” lace dress, with promises to advance her career.
Another said Haas approached him at a music convention in the early 2000s, pressed her against a wall, wrapped his head around her hand, and forcibly kissed her. A third said That Mr. Haas invited her for a walk at a convention in 2007 to give her advice on her career. He took her to a bench and kissed her and patted her by force, he said.
The fourth, who had met her as a teenager in a workshop, said he grabbed her and forcibly kissed her a few years later at a conference when she was 18. sexual acts. When she refused, he became angry, so she relented, he said.
The woman, now a singer in a Catholic parish, then suffered a panic attack when she had to sing one of Mr. Haas’s songs at Mass.
Mr. Haas married for seven years Jeanne Cotter, a liturgical composer, who came forward after the allegations were revealed. She told The Times that the stories echoed facets of her own experience: when they met, Haas forcibly embraced her at 16 when he was 24, she said, and after her divorce in 1995, she faced retaliation in the world of liturgical music. .
“He was able to create a network around him that allowed him,” he says. “Ultimately, the faithful of the banks become a kind of victim because their acceptance as true has been betrayed.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis issued two statements this year about the charges. The first, in June, filed a 1987 complaint that Mr. Haas had made “unwanted sexual innuendos toward a young adult woman.” A spokesman said the archdiocese had been notified of the indictment and that “it had been resolved” had not yet been specified. He noted that Mr. Haas was never a worker in the archdiocese.
Haas has toured and performed throughout the country for the next 30 years. In 1999, he founded Music Ministry Alive, which lasted until 2017, giving him “access to the demographic population with which the diocese had a relationship,” Cotter said.
The archdiocese said it warned in 2018 of two other reports that Haas had acted inappropriately with two women at Catholic events, according to the statement. After these reports, the archdiocese asked Mr. Haas to disclose the court cases when he performed in churches or schools, and did not renew his letter of suitability, a requirement to be made in other archdiocees.
At one point later in July, the archdiocese stated that it had gained even more reporting and would no longer play Mr. Haas’s music or allow him to perform at masses or other occasions in the archdiocese. He suggested that other Catholic establishments do the same.
Soon after, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles forbade Mr. Haas to act while investigating, a spokeswoman said. A total of 10 archdiocese, adding Boston and St. Louis, showed last week that they had asked churches not to play their music, pending research. Six others alerted the parishes to the accusations, but left the resolution to the local churches. Some have banned him from performing, but have not issued musical guidelines. Eight, adding to New York, said they had not taken action and seven did not respond without delay to the consultations.
The popularity of Haas hymns among parishioners complicates things, and some churches allow music at personal masses, such as funerals. Mark Scozzafave, director of music ministries at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago, said a Sunday Mass regularly included up to 3 of Haas’s plays. He stopped them in public masses.
“The last thing I need to do may be to provoke in a meeting who some survivor is,” he says.
Advertising