SNAP Accuses Diocese of Concealing Names of Additional Offending Priests

By Paul Srubas
Green Bay Press-Gazette
January 18, 2019

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2019/01/18/clergy-sex-abuse-green-bay-diocese-priests-norbertines-abuse-zubik-snap-isely/2613610002/

An activist group for victims of priest abuse is claiming the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay remains in cover-up mode despite Thursday’s release of suspects’ names by the diocese.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Friday accused the diocese of intentionally withholding the names of other suspected priests, particularly those of the Norbertine order.

He said at least 16 Norbertine order priests also should have been included on the list.

Isely made the complaints during a press conference on the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral steps the day after Green Bay Bishop David Ricken released the names of 46 diocesan priests who had substantiated sexual assault allegations made against them over the last 112 years.

"When you release a list of priests and clerics that you know — first of all, you kept them secret for all these years, and why did you keep them secret? — but when you release it, you have a duty and an obligation to let the public and survivors know that you know which clergy assaulted," Isely said.

Peter Isely of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, looks at photos of abuse victim Friday in front of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral during a press conference in Green Bay. (Photo: Jim Matthews/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Church officials said priests in the Norbertine order were intentionally withheld because they are not under the diocese's jurisdiction.

Isely doesn't buy the argument that the bishop has no jurisdiction over Norbertine priests.

"Any cleric that has worked and lived in this diocese is under the authority of this bishop," Isely said. "They're only here by permission of the bishop ... Other bishops around the nation who have been releasing these lists have included every cleric that they know of, including religious-order clerics. It is unacceptable that Ricken has not done what these other bishops have done."

The Diocese on Friday reiterated its claim that the Norbertines operate as a separate entity, despite providing many of the priests assigned to parishes throughout the diocese. In a statement, it repeated the words diocesan chancellor Tammy Basten spoke at the Thursday press conference:

"Diocesan priests are directly accountable to the bishop," Basten said. "Priests who are part of religious orders, such as the Norbertines or Franciscans, are accountable to their religious superior within the order ... The religious orders hold and are responsible for the personnel files of their priests."

The diocese on Friday urged religious orders to review their own priest files and publicize the results.

St. Norbert Abbey on Thursday confirmed an outside investigator is conducting an audit, much as the diocese had done in the months leading up to this week's release of names. It has not said if it will make the resulting report public.

The Jesuit religious order released its own list in December of 89 priests with what it identified as credible or established allegations of sexually abusing a minor.

Isely said his group is calling for Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to launch a statewide investigation of clerical sexual abuse and church cover-ups, and to investigate the destruction of personnel records ordered in the Green Bay diocese by former Bishop David Zubik in 2007.

"A list of names alone doesn't give you the information that we deserve and the public deserves," Isely said. "For example, when you got your report, what did you do with it? Who knew? What are all the parishes and ministries he (the suspected offender) was in? Did you transfer him when you found out? That's the information we need to have."

Alice Hodek, mother of a Green Bay abuse victim, displays photos of victims Friday in front of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, before a press conference with Peter Isely of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests in Green Bay. (Photo: Jim Matthews/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

SNAP claims diocesan publications have previously identified the 16 Norbertines, which include at least one, James Stein, who was convicted of sex abuse. Stein was convicted in Brown County Circuit Court in 2004

Regarding the destruction of records, Basten on Thursday said the diocese destroyed the personnel records of priests who have been dead for at least a year, but retained sufficient records to be able to identify those priests facing substantiated claims of sexually abusive behavior.

Isely criticized the diocese for releasing only the names of priests accused of what the diocese determined to be substantiated allegations of sexual abuse. He said the diocese's release is based on its own definition of "substantiated" allegations, and its destruction of records prevents any independent analysis to determine whether other priests' names should also be released, Isely said.

Rev. John Girotti, vicar for canonical services for the diocese, on Thursday said the diocese regarded substantiated claims as being those in which the victims were reasonably accurate as to time and place and other details of their abuse. Many of the accusations through the years arose out of incidents occurring many years earlier, but such accusations still would have to properly place the offending priest at the proper parish in approximately the right time frame to be regarded seriously, he said.

The diocese launched its internal investigation in September after a grand jury in Pennsylvania put out a report detailing abuse and cover-ups in eight dioceses throughout that state. The report included a diocese now run by Zubik, and the report suggests he had been part of a cover-up in the years preceding his time as head of the Green Bay diocese.

The Pennsylvania report prompted several dioceses all over the country to conduct internal probes much like Green Bay did, and more than a dozen state attorney generals subsequently launched probes of abuse by clergy in their states.