Listecki Honors Milwaukee Bishop Who LED Cover up of Child Sex Crimes
By John Pilmaier
Only days after Judge Susan V. Kelley ruled that his testimony detailing decades of covering up child sex crimes was so “scandalous” that she will not unseal it, retired Milwaukee Bishop Richard Sklba was selected by current Archbishop Jerome Listecki to lead the Easter Mass for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It was mistakenly reported by WTMJ Channel 4 Milwaukee this morning that former Archbishop Rembert Weakland also celebrated the Easter Mass. He did not. Attorneys and the Creditors Committee representing the claims of 570 victim/survivors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court had sought the release last week of Sklba’s deposition, along with retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, and some of the 50,000 pages of internal church documents related to the concealment and transfer of dozens of clergy child molesters. Kelley was persuaded by lawyers representing Weakland and the Archdiocese that the release of the depositions would, among other things, “humiliate” Weakland and others. Sklba, as Weakland’s deputy assistant, oversaw the cover up of child sex crimes in the archdiocese of Milwaukee for decades. Sklba has been directly identified in church documents, court depositions and by witnesses with covering up the actions of some of the archdiocese’s most notorious sex offenders including: Frs. George Nuedling, Peter Burns, William Effinger, Dennis Pecore, Edmund Haen, Simon Palathingal, Eldred Lesniewski, Frederick Bistricky, Franklyn Becker, David Hanser, Lawrence Murphy, and Sister Norma Giannini. Weakland retired as Archbishop in 2002 after it was learned he had paid almost half a million dollars in hush money from church funds to pay a Marquette student who he had sexual relations with. The man claimed that Weakland had sexually abused him; Weakland denies the charge. Weakland, in a previous deposition, said that Sklba was his “point guy” on all priest child sex abuse cases for the diocese. And Sklba authorized Weakland’s secret payout. Listecki has supported Weakland in the past. The day of his installation as Archbishop, Listecki invited Weakland to join him on the altar and praised him for his “wisdom” in a news conference later that day. Listecki has also embraced the public honors Weakland bestowed upon himself shortly before his resignation. Inside St. John’s Cathedral Weakland commissioned a large bronze relief placed underneath a statue of the Virgin Mary which features Weakland in the place of Jesus as he shepherds the children of the archdiocese. The Cathedral Complex is also named after Weakland. Listecki’s deference extends not only to his brother bishops but to the priests of the diocese who have sexually assaulted children. When Fr. Jerome Lanser recently passed away he was buried in his full priestly vestments despite the fact that he had sexually assaulted children as a priest. If, instead of institutional accountability, public displays of honor and esteem are bestowed upon church leaders who knowingly covered up criminal acts against children, then the fault, apparently, is not due to certain individuals, like Weakland and Sklba, but is deeper, and within the system itself. That is why the church system itself must be changed, until it does hold those like Weakland and Sklba responsible. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 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. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com.
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