WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald
June 6, 2019
By Natalie Brophy
A former Northwoods Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing children will be released into Lincoln County later this month.
Upon his release June 19, David J. Malsch, 80, will live at N4883A Lilac Lane in Gleason, a little over 20 miles east of Merrill, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Malsch was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1967. He was first accused of sexual abuse while he was working at St. Patrick’s in Superior, according to bishopaccountability.org, a website that tracks abuse by Catholic priests. In 1979, Malsch gave two brothers, 12 and 13 years old, alcohol and showed them pornography. He tried to take off the 13-year-old’s pants, the Wausau Daily Herald reported. In the early 1980s, he sexually assaulted the younger brother in the rectory of St. Patrick’s and paid the boy for nude photos, according to the Daily Herald.
After that, according to Bishop Accountability, he was sent to a church-sponsored treatment center in Minnesota. Later that same year, he was reassigned to St. Joseph’s in Rhinelander and two years later, moved to St. Mary’s church in Tomahawk.
At St. Mary’s, Malsch was allowed to work with children who had emotional and learning problems, according to Bishop Accountability. In 1991, he was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy with learning disabilities. According to a Wausau Daily Herald report from 1999, Malsch took the boy to a hotel in Rib Mountain, gave him alcohol and took nude photos of him. Malsch also showed the boy pornography in the St. Mary’s rectory.
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