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  Annual Report Reveals Wisconsin Jesuits Sex Crimes

SNAP Wisconsin
April 20, 2011

http://mnsnap.wordpress.com/snap-wisconsin/

Figures from the diocese of Sioux Falls South Dakota, reported in the Rapid City Journal today, show that at least nine new reports of child sex abuse were made against what appears to be a total number of six Jesuits from the Wisconsin Province for acts of sexual misconduct and child sex abuse. The figure was part of a yearly submission of new reports of child sex abuse compiled by each diocese for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Most of the newly reported crimes would have occurred over several decades at a Catholic mission operated by the Wisconsin Province in Rosebud, South Dakota. The Province, which assigns Jesuits to several states, is headquartered in Milwaukee. The Rosebud reservation is home to 20,000 Lakota (Sioux) Native Americans located in the diocese of Rapid City.

A series of groundbreaking legal settlements over the past several years have revealed that the Jesuits have used Native American reservations, such as Rosebud, to “hide and dump” their pedophile priests. Hundreds of cases of such abuse by dozens of Jesuits led to the recent bankruptcy of the diocese of Fairbanks, traditionally run by a Jesuit bishop. (The Alaska cases were the subject of last night’s heartbreaking report, The Silence, aired nationally on PBS’s award winning documentary series Frontline.)

Last month, Jesuit Fr. Perry Robinsonfrom the Wisconsin Province was secretly removed from ministry after a new report of sexual abuse was made by a former student of Marquette University High School. The Jesuits attempted to conceal Robinson’s history from the public, and further concealed the reason for his removal.

And less than three weeks ago it was shown that Jesuit Fr. Robert Wild, President of Marquette University, had concealed the child sex crimes of the infamous child predator Fr. Donald McGuire. As Jesuit provincial of the Chicago Province Wild allowed McGuire to remain in ministry unsupervised knowing that McGuire was likely sexually abusing children. McGuire went on to assault children for a decade after Wild could have stopped him.

Jesuit officials from the Wisconsin Province, who claim to be “transparent” about their child sex abuse problem have, in fact, refused to release any information concerning Jesuits who have committed these crimes, including who they are, where they are living and working, and why they have not been turned over to authorities. Disclosing one, unexplained statistic is hardly “transparency.” And today’s number doesn’t even come from the Jesuits, but from the diocese of Sioux Falls, just one of dozens of dioceses where Jesuits live and work, including a large number in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

The Wisconsin Province repeatedly refuses to exercise public safety, responsibility and accountability for the crimes committed by their members against children. Isn’t it long overdue for Archbishop Jerome Listecki to use his authority as their bishop and order them to do it?

 
 

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