WISCONSIN
Kenosha News
BY JILL TATGE-ROZELL
jrozell@kenoshanews.com
It’s been 11 years since Donna Johnson Polencheck, now 68, reported the sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of a local priest.
She said there is satisfaction in knowing her abuser, Joseph Savage, has been unmasked. It allowed her to begin the healing process.
“I still don’t necessarily trust people who are in a position of authority in the church,” Polencheck said. “But I am a Catholic and no one is ever going to take that away from me. He may have stolen my youth, but I won’t let him have my faith.”
Polencheck wasn’t the only one to issue allegations against priests who served at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Wilmot in the 1950s. John Riesselmann and Wesley Woodall brought official complaints before the Archdiocese of Milwaukee regarding alleged abuse by former priests Harold Herbst and Joseph Savage.
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