SNAP Calls on Diocese to Release Additional Priest Names

By Tia Johnson
WBAY TV
January 18, 2019

https://www.wbay.com/content/news/SNAP-calls-on-Wisconsin-Attorney-General-to-investigate-Green-Bay-Diocese-504534201.html

A national clergy abuse survivor group is urging Wisconsin's Attorney General to investigate the Diocese of Green Bay after the church released names of 46 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

On Friday, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) held a news conference in front of the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier on Madison Street in Green Bay.

SNAP is urging Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to initiate a statewide investigation of church sexual abuse and cover up.

"There are 15 states now and the US Department of Justice that have open investigations of Diocese like this one where there has been demonstrable evidence and proof that there has been a history of decades of covering up child sex crimes," says Peter Isely, founding member of SNAP.

Green Bay's police chief, too, is calling on organizations with evidence or records of sexual abuse to turn them over (read Chief Andrew Smith's complete letter at the end of this article).

SNAP is asking for Bishop David Ricken to name "additional abusive priests known by church officials to have operated within his diocese."

"That list is partial, it is biased and it is incomplete," Isely says.

"When you release that list, you have a duty and a responsibility and an obligation to let the public know, and to let survivors know, in particular, that you know which clergy and which priests have sexually assaulted and raped children, because you know who they are."

The Diocese list of names does not include religious orders such as the Norbertines or Franciscans.

Isely says bishops in other states have included the names of priests in religious orders.

"These are not minor crimes. These are crimes against children. You have that information, you have those identities. And you have to release those names and identities. You have the authority to do it. And we insist, as survivors, and we think the public is insisting that you do that," Isely says.

He argues, "Any cleric that has worked or lived in this Diocese is ultimately under the authority of this bishop."

"According [to] Bishop Accountability the following order priests who have been accused of abuse and spent time in Green Bay but are not disclosed in today’s [Thursday's] release: Fr. Angelo Feldkamp, Fr. Camillus Frigo, Fr. Eric Middlecamp, Fr. Rudolph Nocinski, Fr. Loren Nys, Fr. James Stein. An article from The Compass in 2004 also recognizes that at least 16 Norbertine priests had been accused of abuse as well." - SNAP

SNAP is asking the AG to look into the destruction of files about sex abuse by former Bishop David Zubik in 2007. Isely says the evidence was destroyed because the church was about to face civil action.

"This has been proven and demonstrated by admissions by church officials here in 2007. And these are admissions in court depositions, that Bishop Zubik ordered the systematic destruction of criminal evidence of child sex abuse by clerics in this Diocese," Isely says.

On Thursday, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced that an investigation found 47 clergy members with "substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor."