Pope’s chief architect of abuse policy quits; global survivors respond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-29-2023

Zollner: Francis’s key oversight and compliance commission has failed

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This morning, Fr. Hans Zollner, the chief architect of Pope Francis’s clergy sex abuse policy, announced his resignation from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The Commission, established in 2014, is the centerpiece of Pope Francis’s response to the global clergy sexual abuse catastrophe.

The Commission’s mandate, according to Zollner, was to ensure “responsibility, compliance, accountability, and transparency.” After nine years in the Commission, Zollner has confirmed through his resignation statement that the Commission has failed on all four counts. Zollner’s resignation clearly signifies that the Commission, and therefore Pope Francis’s entire abuse management strategy, is unsalvageable.

Yesterday, Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) along with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) sent an open letter to Zollner sharing some of his concerns and calling on him to urge Pope Francis to implement a true ‘zero tolerance law’ that would remove abusive clerics and bishops who conceal abuse from ministry.

On March 25th, Pope Francis announced updated recommendations to Vos estis lux mundi, his suggested instructions to bishops housing and managing sex offenders in their respective dioceses. Vos estis lux mundi is not a universal and binding Church law. “Worse,” say survivor organizations, “it is misleading to say or suggest that it is.”

The formation of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors resulted from decades of clergy abuse survivor activism around the world. Pope Francis promised survivors that this Commission would end clergy abuse. The Pope has broken his promise, and Zollner’s resignation and reasons for leaving confirm this.

Pope Francis is convening a worldwide synod this October which will determine the future of the Catholic Church. Alarmingly, the Church’s greatest catastrophe, widespread rape and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults, is not on the agenda.

This means Pope Francis does not see a ‘zero tolerance law’ for abuse and its institutional concealment as part of the future of the Catholic Church. 

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Global abuse survivors and advocates say “Vos estis lux mundi” is not ‘zero tolerance’ for sexual abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-28-2023

In an open letter to Vatican abuse czar, groups demand a universal and binding ‘zero tolerance’ law

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The global community of clergy abuse survivors and advocates represented by Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) sent an open letter to Fr. Hans Zollner Tuesday morning calling on Zollner, in his role as the Vatican’s chief abuse expert and spokesperson on the global clergy abuse catastrophe, to urge Pope Francis to fulfill his promises to abuse survivors by making “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse and its institutional concealment a universal and binding Church law.

Four years ago, survivors and advocates from around the globe met with Zollner and other Vatican officials to insist on making ‘zero tolerance’ a universal Church law so that any clergy member found to have committed acts of abuse against a child or vulnerable adult can no longer legally remain in ministry and any bishop or Church official who is found to have covered up sex crimes can no longer legally remain in a position of authority.

On March 25th, Pope Francis announced updated recommendations to Vos estis lux mundi, his suggested instructions to bishops housing and managing sex offenders in their respective dioceses. Vos estis lux mundi is not a universal and binding Church law. “Worse,” say survivor organizations, “it is misleading to say or suggest that it is.”

The full text of the open letter can be found below.

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Dear Fr. Zollner,

As a global community of clergy abuse survivors and advocates, we are writing to you in light of the recently-announced updated recommendations to bishops around the world in Vos estis lux mundi. As you know, these suggested instructions do not hold the force of Church law. Even if they did, survivors are dismayed that these instructions do not endorse ‘zero tolerance’ of sexual abuse and its institutional concealment. In other words, if a clergy member is found to have committed acts of abuse against a child or vulnerable adult, a bishop is not legally required to remove that sex offender from ministry. If a bishop or Church official is found to have covered up sex crimes, they can legally remain in positions of authority.

Pope Francis promised survivors and Catholics around the world ‘zero tolerance’ for sexual abuse. Vos estis lux mundi is not that. Worse, it is misleading to say or suggest that it is.

Our demands for actual ‘zero tolerance’ remain unchanged since our meeting with you and other members of the Vatican anti-abuse task force at the papal summit on abuse in 2019. As the Vatican’s chief expert and spokesperson on the global clergy abuse catastrophe, your counsel holds great weight with Pope Francis. We are calling on you to urge Pope Francis to fulfill his promise to us by making ‘zero tolerance’ a binding and universal Church law.   
 

Sincerely,

Ending Clergy Abuse  (ECA)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

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Survivors condemn Archbishop Listecki’s retaliation against priest whistleblower

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-24-2023

Clergy abuse survivors and advocates to hold press conference in support of Father James Connell

L: Rev. James Connell speaks at a 2010 Milwaukee news conference in support of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
DINESH RAMDE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
R: Rev, James Connell looks at photos of abusive priests at a 2022 press conference regarding the public funeral of former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland,
SOPHIE CARSON/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

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WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 812 N Jackson St, Milwaukee, WI

WHEN: Friday, March 24th, 11:00am

WHO: Clergy abuse survivors and advocates

WHAT: A press conference with clergy abuse survivors and advocates holding signs in support of Father James Connell

WHY: On March 22nd, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, in an unprecedented act of retaliation, “removed the canonical faculties of Father James Connell to validly celebrate the Sacrament of Confession and to offer absolution,” as punishment for his relentless advocacy on behalf of survivors of rape and sexual violence at the hands of Catholic clergy.

Since 2010, when Father Connell, a canon lawyer, pastor, and former vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, co-founded the Survivors and Clergy Leadership Alliance, he has met and prayed with clergy abuse survivors, repeatedly called for transparency from the archdiocese, and advocated for holding bishops accountable for covering up child sex crimes.

In 2018, Connell began public advocacy for legislation that would remove loopholes that allow clergy members to avoid reporting child sexual abuse to law enforcement. Such legislation would remove exemptions when clergy are notified of sexual abuse in the course of their professional duties. Wisconsin is among several states that have introduced a Clergy Mandatory Reporter Act. Under state law, over 30 other professions including healthcare workers, therapists, and school employees are required to report child sexual abuse. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm offered his support for the Clergy Mandatory Reporter Act when it was introduced in 2019.

Father Connell has been an outspoken critic of Archbishop Listecki’s refusal to cooperate with Attorney General Josh Kaul’s ongoing statewide clergy abuse investigation. This punitive action on the part of Archbishop Listecki sends a chilling message to any other priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who might dare to criticize his and his predecessors’ concealment of rape and sexual assault of children by Catholic clergy.

“Father Connell is one of the only priests I have known who has given his unconditional public support and friendship to victims of clergy abuse. His courage in the face of persecution from Archbishop Listecki is a testament to his deep faith and commitment to the spirit of the gospels and his lifelong ministry as a priest.” said Peter Isely, Program Director of Nate’s Mission. 

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Ten years after becoming Pope, why has Francis yet to make zero tolerance a universal church law?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-13-2023

When Jose Bergolio became Pope ten years ago, he vowed to hundreds of thousands of survivors around the world that he would put an end to the church’s global system of clerical sex crimes and cover-up. To do that, he would need to do what his predecessors refused to do: make it a universal church law that if a priest sexually assaults a child, he will be removed from the priesthood. Furthermore, if his bishop covered up for him, the bishop would also be defrocked. It would take one paragraph and one stroke of the pen for Pope Francis to do this. The question survivors around the world are asking today is: after ten years, why does he continue to break the promise he made to us?

Without zero tolerance written into church law, no reforms of church abuse policies or management practices, papal prayers or expressions of remorse, prevention education and seminary training, will ever succeed at putting an end to clergy abuse and cover-up. As absurd as it sounds, in the Catholic Church, you cannot be a woman and a priest, you cannot be a married man and a priest, but you can be a child abuser and a priest. This makes the priesthood perhaps the only occupation in civil society working with children and families where you can rape, sexually assault, or abuse a child and remain in that occupation working with children and families.

Without a global zero tolerance law, priests who abuse children around the world can remain in ministry without violating church law. Without a global zero tolerance law, bishops and church officials who transfer and conceal sex offender clergy can legally remain in their positions of authority.

Right now in Poland, the world is learning more about how Pope John Paul II, the first Pope in modern times who had to respond to public exposure of clerical sex crimes, covered up these very same crimes and transferred the offenders to new assignments. The Vatican, knowing full well knew what he had done, insisted on canonizing him a saint, confident his misconduct would remain a secret or be met with excuses and indifference. Similarly, before his recent death, long-suspected documented evidence surfaced, proving that Pope Benedict also concealed and transferred priest sex offenders, something he had publicly denied three times. And credible evidence continues to surface that Pope Francis was involved in covering up evidence of clergy sex abuse when Archbishop of Buenos Aires, indicating the same pattern as his predecessors. Why have no records been independently reviewed, much less released, of the cases of priest abuse that Francis oversaw as an Archbishop or earlier in his career as a powerful Jesuit Provincial? Francis has been hailed by some as the Pope who finally lifted Papal secrecy. He seems to have plenty of secrets of his own that he refuses to lift.

Is it reasonable to expect that when a Cardinal who covered up sex crimes becomes Pope, he is going to enact and enforce a law that he himself has repeatedly broken?

Yet this October, Francis is convening a worldwide synod of bishops to finalize his legacy and set the future direction of the church. Every conceivable topic and concern is on the agenda except one: clergy sex abuse and cover-up. If Francis does not convene his synod before his bishops with the announcement of clear universal church Zero Tolerance law, whatever else he has accomplished in his Papacy will have been a practical and moral failure.

Catholic dogma and teaching has historically claimed that Saint Peter of the Gospels, the famous disciple, was given the unique and singular authority by Jesus to lead the new Christian movement. Catholics believe Pope Francis is in a direct line of succession to Peter. In the Gospels, Jesus tells Peter, to his utter incredulity, that after his arrest he will betray him three times by publicly declaring he does not know him. When he does so, Peter remembers what Jesus had said to him. The Gospel says he was full of shame and "wept bitterly." Why would Jesus put in charge of his church a man he knew would betray him? Perhaps he also knew that Peter would realize the depth of his betrayal and not conceal or cover it up, but openly weep about it, repent, and change. It's hard to imagine a more timely lesson for Pope Francis as he enters his second decade on Peter’s Chair. 

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Milwaukee premiere of new Wisconsin-based documentary takes a controversial look at the clergy sexual abuse and cover-up crisis

Scheduled to follow the film is a panel discussion on Wisconsin AG Kaul’s statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03-06-23

WHEN: Sunday, March 19th, 3:00pm

WHERE: The Oriental Theatre, 2230 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202

WHAT: Milwaukee premiere of a new Wisconsin-based documentary on clergy sexual abuse and cover-up and panel discussion of statewide clergy abuse investigation

WHO: Local survivors and advocates, filmmaker Sarah Pearson, former Archdiocese of Milwaukee priest and abuse survivor Kevin Wester

Manufacturing the Clerical Predator, a controversial new Wisconsin-based clergy abuse documentary, will have its Milwaukee premiere at the Oriental Theatre on Milwaukee’s East Side on Sunday, March 19th. The film first premiered at Harvard Divinity School as part of Harvard’s Religion and Public Life program and is being used to train survivors and activists around the world in understanding, combatting, and preventing criminal sexual conduct among Catholic clergy and the systematic cover-up of those crimes.

“Manufacturing the Clerical Predator goes beyond the usual clichéd and tediously repeated popular explanations offered for the abuse crisis through the personal and theoretical accounts of three Wisconsin former seminarians and priests, detailing the transmission of the culture of clerical abuse across three generations,” says Sarah Pearson, the director of the film and Deputy Director of Nate’s Mission. “It supplies a fresh, unique, and urgently needed new approach to the questions that have yet to really be answered and that so many people are still asking:

Why is it that after sixteen centuries of documented evidence and decades of continuous international public exposure, new revelations of the scope and magnitude of the crisis continue to shock the public?

Why is abuse so particularly prevalent in the Catholic Church?

Why hasn’t it been stopped after so many decades of public exposure and scandal?”

Scheduled to follow the film is a panel discussion on Wisconsin Attorney General Kaul’s ongoing statewide investigation into clergy abuse, soon to enter its third year. Invited by Nate’s Mission are Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who is working with Kaul’s investigation, and Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. 

See the invitations we sent to them last week.

Prominently featured in the film is Belgium, Wisconsin native Kevin Wester, a survivor of clergy abuse by a Milwaukee priest as a child. Wester was later ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee where he served over 3,500 families in three parish assignments for 15 years. This is the first time Wester has spoken publicly about his abuse and his time in the priesthood. Wester offers a particularly unique view of the deep-seated clerical culture of the church that has fostered and perpetuated sexual abuse of children.

Three generations of Wisconsin priests and seminarians; L to R: Kevin Wester, James Egan, Thomas Doyle

Also featured in the film are Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, one of the earliest abuse whistleblowers at the Vatican embassy in Washington DC, and a former Dominican priest, as well as James Egan, a former seminarian from the Milwaukee area who reports his experiences in a culture rife with grooming, misconduct, and virulent opposition to survivor organizing.

Find more information about the film and reserve seats here. 

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Deaf survivors of Father Lawrence Murphy outraged by Listecki’s silence regarding Pope Benedict’s role in covering up abuse of over 200 deaf children

Listecki once again honoring major figure in Milwaukee Archdiocese sexual abuse cover-up

Clergy abuse survivors to hold press conference prior to public memorial for Pope Benedict

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1-9-22

WHEN: Tuesday, January 10, 2023, 4:45pm

WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 831 N Van Buren St, Milwaukee, WI

WHAT: A press conference outside the Memorial Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI featuring childhood photos of abuse survivors and a special visual memorial for survivors of Father Lawrence Murphy and their families

WHO: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse including deaf survivors of Father Murphy

WHY: On Tuesday, January 10th, Archbishop Jerome Listecki will preside over a public memorial service honoring the late Pope Benedict. Last August, Listecki celebrated a similar public service for former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland. Both men were directly involved in the cover-up of child sex crimes throughout their careers that impacted the lives of thousands of Milwaukee survivors and their families. 

Benedict, to varying degrees, worked with three Milwaukee archbishops who both concealed and shielded abusive clergy. The most notorious of these cases is undoubtedly that of Father Lawrence Murphy, who admitted to former Archbishop Weakland that he raped and sexually assaulted over 200 deaf children while operating St. John’s School for the Deaf. In a 1998 letter, Weakland wrote that he worked with Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome, to “protect Murphy’s good name” by concealing his criminal activity from the public. As head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the time, Ratzinger ruled that Murphy would remain a priest. Weakland explained, “so far we have succeeded in preserving his reputation.” In 2010, this became a global headline when documents and evidence concerning Father Murphy, Archbishop Weakland, and Cardinal Ratzinger were delivered to the New York Times. 

The case of Father Murphy was not the only direct impact Benedict had on the Milwaukee Archdiocese. When the Milwaukee Archdiocese filed bankruptcy for roughly 8,000 incidents of child sexual abuse, Benedict approved a widely-considered fraudulent transfer of $60 million dollars at the request of then Milwaukee Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. According to a secret letter to the Vatican, Dolan initiated the transfer to avoid compensating victims by US courts. 

Benedict appointed current Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki before resigning from the papacy in 2013. Listecki has openly refused to cooperate with a statewide clergy abuse investigation launched by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul in April 2021. Thus far, it appears as though Attorney General Kaul has failed to compel Wisconsin’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders to comply with his investigation by sharing documents and evidence related to clergy sexual abuse and cover-up with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. It is likely that copies of many of these documents, including those concerning cases overseen by Pope Benedict, exist in the Vatican’s archives. 

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Pope Benedict XVI was involved in several high-profile Wisconsin abuse cases

AG Kaul requires evidence from the Vatican regarding all Wisconsin cases to complete his clergy abuse investigation

Ambassador Donnelly must demand evidence on behalf of Kaul’s investigation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1-4-22

On Thursday, a US delegation including US Ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, and former Milwaukee Archbishop, now Cardinal Timothy Dolan, will represent President Biden at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI. 

As head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and then Pope, Benedict XVI was involved in some of the most notorious cases of sexual abuse in the United States, including that of Milwaukee-based Father Lawrence Murphy, who raped and sexually assaulted over 200 deaf children. 

When the Milwaukee Archdiocese filed bankruptcy for roughly 8,000 incidents of child sexual abuse, Pope Benedict XVI approved a widely-considered fraudulent transfer of $60 million dollars at the request of then Milwaukee Archbishop, Cardinal TImothy Dolan. According to a secret letter to the Vatican, Dolan initiated the transfer to avoid compensating victims by US courts. 

Pope Benedict XVI appointed current Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki before resigning from the papacy. Listecki has openly refused to cooperate with a statewide clergy abuse investigation launched by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul in April 2021. Yesterday, Listecki prayed the Invocation for the Inauguration of the 2023 Wisconsin State Assembly.

Photo from Archdiocese of Milwaukee Facebook page

Thus far, it appears as though Attorney General Kaul has failed to compel Wisconsin’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders to comply with his investigation by sharing documents and evidence related to clergy sexual abuse and cover-up with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. It is likely that copies of many of these documents, including those concerning cases overseen by Pope Benedict XVI, exist in the Vatican’s archives. 

In a letter sent to state delegations attending Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral, including Ambassador Donnelly, clergy abuse survivors have made two requests that pertain to Kaul’s investigation:

1. Make an official request of the Vatican to share all documents and evidence related to clergy sexual abuse and cover-up with justice officials in your respective states. This would include direct evidence of thousands of cases of abuse that may have been mishandled by Pope Benedict XVI that remain in the Vatican’s secret archive.

2. Demand Pope Francis order his bishops to cooperate fully with all governmental investigations into clergy sexual abuse, including that of the United Nations, which so far, he has not done.

Last year, after receiving a letter from US clergy abuse victim organizations, including Nate’s Mission, Ambassador Donnelly, in an email, promised to meet with victims following his confirmation. Since then, after repeated attempts to contact the ambassador, victims have yet to receive a reply. 

The Biden administration has made several laudatory official statements regarding the passing of Pope Benedict XVI without addressing his years of covering up widespread human rights violations against American children by thousands of US Catholic clergy. President Biden has spoken fondly of his Catholic faith and education, including his years as an adolescent at Archmere Academy, a Catholic preparatory school in Claymont, Delaware, operated by the Wisconsin-based Norbertine religious order. At the time both his sons, Beau and Hunter Biden, attended Archmere, internal church documents show several Norbertine faculty members were known by the religious order to be sexually assaulting students. 

The international anti-clergy abuse organization, Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), sent the following letter to Ambassador Donnelly and other state delegations attending Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral.

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To our respective state delegations:

This week, the Vatican will lead a global memorial and celebration, honoring the life and legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. You will travel to Vatican City for his funeral, and in doing so, you will be acknowledging the historical, political, and social power of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile millions of clergy abuse victims around the world will be forced to witness what will likely be a rewriting of history concerning the legacy and actions of a man who is directly and partly responsible for decades of widespread and systematic rape and sexual abuse of children in the church. 

Throughout most of his professional life, Pope Benedict XVI was one the chief architects of the cover-up of abuse in the Catholic Church. As Archbishop of Munich, he concealed and transferred known abusive clergy and until his death misled investigators and the public about his direct responsibility for it. As head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) under John Paul II, he acted as the Pope’s chief global fixer for 23 years, shielding bishops from criminal, civil, and moral accountability for conducting themselves the way he did when Archbishop of Munich. After a short time as Pope, history finally caught up with him, and he resigned before the full extent of his role in these crimes had emerged. After his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI had almost ten years to make amends for his actions. He failed to do so. 

In many of your countries, the Vatican is currently obstructing governmental investigations into clergy sexual abuse by refusing to share documents and evidence related to abuse and institutional concealment with state officials. A great deal of this evidence pertains to child sexual abuse and cover-up that occurred under the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, while he was head of the CDF and then Pope. The Vatican continues to ignore the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s mandate that would bring the Holy See into compliance with international human rights law.

Your planned attendance of Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral and the official praise you have bestowed upon him with no acknowledgement of his central role in the global clergy abuse crisis is deeply harmful to survivors and an affront to memory and justice. 

We are asking you to take the side of victims against their abusers and those who would deny our suffering and instead to do the following:

1. Use your state power and diplomatic influence to demand that Pope Francis make zero tolerance for clergy sexual abuse a universal church law. Thus far, like his predecessor, he has refused to do so. 

2. Make an official request of the Vatican to share all documents and evidence related to clergy sexual abuse and cover-up with justice officials in your respective states. This would include direct evidence of thousands of cases of abuse that may have been mishandled by Pope Benedict that remain in the Vatican’s secret archive.

3. Demand Pope Francis order his bishops to cooperate fully with all governmental investigations into clergy sexual abuse, including that of the United Nations, which so far, he has not done.

By attending this event and remaining silent regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to protect your nation’s children, wittingly or not, you are participating in the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. This is why we are respectfully asking that you reconsider your presence at the funeral. Instead, we call on you to join survivors around the world, including those in your own nation, in bringing about a post-abuse church, which will never happen without truth-telling, transparency, and accountability.

Sincerely,

Ending Clergy Abuse Board Members

Time has run out for Pope Benedict, but it’s not too late for Pope Francis

In Milwaukee, Pope Benedict covered up one of the world’s most notorious cases of abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12-31-22

This week, Pope Francis and the Vatican will orchestrate a global celebration, honoring the life and legacy of the late Pope Benedict. Heads of state, religious leaders, and prominent Catholics will travel to Vatican City acknowledging the historical, political, and social power of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile millions of clergy abuse victims around the world will be forced to witness the rewriting of history concerning the legacy and actions of a man who may have been directly responsible for allowing their abuse.

Throughout most of his professional life, Pope Benedict was one the chief architects of the systematic cover-up of the rape and sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. As Archbishop of Munich, he concealed and transferred known abusive clergy and lied about it. As head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) under John Paul II, he acted as the Pope’s chief global fixer, shielding bishops from criminal, civil, and moral accountability for conducting themselves the same way he did as Archbishop of Munich. As Pope, his history finally caught up with him, and he resigned before the full extent of his role in these crimes had emerged.

While at the CDF, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, officially ruled that a Milwaukee priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, who had admitted to Archdiocesan officials that he had raped and sexually abused over 200 deaf children, would not be removed from the priesthood. He continued to minister unsupervised in the Diocese of Superior.

The Vatican will seize this opportunity to falsify history, exonerate themselves, and redirect the public spotlight away from investigation into the widespread and continued human rights violations against children by members of the Catholic hierarchy, including Pope Francis when he was in Argentina.

The Vatican will be the center of the world’s attention on Thursday. As he presides over Pope Benedict’s funeral, Pope Francis will be defining the life and legacy of his predecessor and holding him up as a great moral figure and world leader. Among his global audience will be three generations of clergy sexual abuse survivors and their families.

Pope Francis can either use this opportunity to continue the coverup of clergy sexual abuse through his silence regarding Pope Benedict’s record and responsibility or he can initiate a new era of truth-telling. That new era would begin when Pope Francis finally makes zero tolerance for clergy sexual abuse a universal Church law. Secondly, Pope Francis must open up the Vatican’s clergy abuse archives, which will likely include direct evidence of thousands of cases of abuse mishandled by Pope Benedict. Finally, Pope Francis should order his bishops to cooperate fully with all governmental investigations into clergy sexual abuse, including that of the United Nations, which so far, they have delayed or refused to do.

After his resignation, Pope Benedict had almost ten years to make amends for his actions. He failed to do so. Pope Francis must not endorse that failure on Thursday.

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Clergy abuse survivors question legitimacy of Diocese of Superior list of accused clergy

Same corporate damage control firm appears to have omitted 69 clergy from Diocese of Green Bay list

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-23-22

Last night, the Diocese of Superior released a list of 23 priests designated as having been “credibly accused” of raping or sexually abusing children. Such a list is only as truthful as the people compiling it. 

Because widespread revelations of sexual abuse of children and its coverup by church officials have destroyed public trust in the leadership of the Catholic Church, four Wisconsin dioceses, including the Diocese of Superior, have outsourced their image problem to a Texas-based corporate damage control firm, Defenbaugh and Associates. But whistleblower documents, delivered to Attorney General Kaul in January, have already disqualified at least one Wisconsin diocesan list compiled by Defenbaugh. 

For example, Defenbaugh’s list of “substantiated allegations” released by the Diocese of Green Bay contains 48 names. An internal church document provided by a church insider, now in possession of the Wisconsin Attorney General, contains at least an additional 69 names. 

Furthermore, Wisconsin state law includes nuns, teachers, coaches, and other Catholic employees as ministers under the supervision and authority of the Catholic hierarchy. Wisconsin’s dioceses routinely receive reports of sexual abuse perpetrated by these state-designated clergy that are not included in any of Defenbaugh’s lists. This is also demonstrated by whistleblower documents in the Attorney General’s possession. 

At least two Native American boarding schools were under the authority of what is now the Diocese of Superior. This list makes no mention of the systematic sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy who participated in this cultural genocidal project. In this release, the diocese takes no responsibility for their role in this history and these crimes. 

Simply listing clergy exonerates the church officials who covered up abuse, transferred accused clergy, and deceived and endangered the public. Bishop James Powers still refuses to cooperate with Attorney General Kaul’s child sex abuse investigation, even though he is required to do so by Pope Francis.

Defenbaugh and Associates were not elected by the citizens of Wisconsin to protect their children and prosecute corporations that cover up sex crimes. The one person in the state of Wisconsin who was recently re-elected to do so is Attorney General Josh Kaul. 

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Victims to hold “survivors’ memorial” outside Milwaukee Cathedral before Weakland’s public funeral

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8-29-22

WHEN: Tuesday, August 30th, 2022, 3:30pm

WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 831 N Van Buren St, Milwaukee, WI

WHO: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates

WHAT: A survivors’ memorial featuring readings, candles, childhood photos of victims, and childhood religious items provided by families of clergy abuse victims who died by suicide

WHY: For 25 years, Archbishop Rembert Weakland facilitated the cover-up of child sex crimes by Catholic clergy, resulting in thousands of child victims. Tomorrow, Archbishop Listecki will celebrate a public funeral honoring and praising Weakland’s life.

This public funeral symbolizes the dangerous falsification of history, effectively erasing the pain and suffering of survivors. It is an endorsement of patterns and practices of concealing abuse that were established by the former Archbishop and are likely continuing today under the leadership of Archbishop Jerome Listecki, who last year, refused to cooperate with a statewide DOJ investigation into clergy sexual abuse. 

Survivors and advocates are encouraging Milwaukee Catholics to attend. 

Read our full release regarding Weakland’s public funeral. 

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Milwaukee priest to join clergy sexual abuse victims and advocates at press conference objecting to public funeral celebrating former Archbishop Rembert Weakland

Former Vice Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will call on fellow priests not to attend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8-29-22

WHEN: Monday, August 29th, 2022, 1:00pm

WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 831 N Van Buren St, Milwaukee, WI

WHO: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates, including a Milwaukee priest

WHAT: A press conference with survivors and advocates unrolling a 60-foot line of photos of clergy offenders under Archbishop Rembert Weakland

WHY: Read Nate’s Mission press release here

A statement from Father James Connell, former Vice Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee:

Archbishop Rembert Weakland deserves no honor or praise because doing so would put salt in the wounds of victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In May 2002, Weakland admitted to a long-term relationship with a man and that Weakland had used $450,000 of archdiocesan funds to pay that man, thus preventing a lawsuit.

In July 2013, in a court deposition made public by the archdiocese via the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Weakland acknowledged transferring Fr. William Effinger to a parish in Sheboygan in 1979, knowing of Effinger’s prior history of sexual abuse of a minor. In 1992, Effinger was arrested in Sheboygan and charged with second degree sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1987 and 1988. In 1993 Effinger pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 1996, Effinger died in prison.

Making matters worse, in that same court deposition, Weakland says that in 1985, at a meeting of Catholic bishops, he learned about the severe damage to victims caused by sexual abuse as a minor and the likely possibility of recidivism among the perpetrators. Yet, even with that knowledge, Weakland did not remove Effinger from Sheboygan.

How many minors were victimized by Effinger after 1985? I do not know exactly, but the list would have to include the teenage boy who was abused by Effinger in 1987 and 1988, the abuse for which Effinger was arrested and incarcerated, abuse that occurred after Weakland learned about the severe damage to victims caused by sexual abuse as a minor. Abuse that could have, and should have, been avoided.

Appropriately, therefore, in March of 2019 Weakland’s name was removed from a building on the property of the archdiocesan cathedral and his image on a relief that is part of the Mary, Mother of God Shrine in the cathedral also was taken down, moves that victims/survivors had wanted for many years.

While I am pleased that Weakland’s burial will be at his monastery in Pennsylvania, I am disappointed that his funeral Mass will be celebrated in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. I would have preferred that the Mass be celebrated in a chapel in that same monastery in Pennsylvania.

Finally I call for all the Catholic clergy in the archdiocese, all bishops, priests, and deacons, to stay away from the funeral on Tuesday. Do not be there. Your absence from the funeral will provide support for all who suffer in any way because of Weakland’s evil.

Thank you. 

Fr. James Connell
A priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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Victims of clergy sexual abuse to hold press conference objecting to public funeral celebrating former Archbishop Rembert Weakland

Weakland transferred or concealed dozens of known sex offenders resulting in thousands of child victims

In a deposition, Weakland indicated that there had been offenders at some point "covering the whole Diocese"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8-28-22

WHEN: Monday, August 29th, 2022, 1:00pm

WHERE: Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 831 N Van Buren St, Milwaukee, WI

WHO: Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates

WHAT: A press conference with survivors and advocates unrolling a 60-foot line of photos of clergy offenders under Archbishop Rembert Weakland

WHY: For 25 years, Archbishop Rembert Weakland facilitated the cover-up of child sex crimes by Catholic clergy, resulting in thousands of child victims. On Tuesday, Archbishop Listecki will celebrate a public funeral honoring and praising Weakland’s life.

In 2019, the Archdiocese removed Weakland’s name and statue from the downtown Cathedral acknowledging his guilt in protecting abusive clergy. This is why victims expected a private funeral mass after the announcement of his death last week. But Archbishop Listecki rejected this option in favor of a public celebration, inviting city leaders, the public, and the press to attend.

During his tenure as Archbishop of Milwaukee, Weakland transferred dozens of known sex offenders into new assignments where they were warmly welcomed by trusting Catholic families. These offenders then proceeded to abuse their children.

Weakland coerced survivors into signing predatory settlement agreements and wielded the full force of the institutional Church including highly-paid corporate lawyers, complicit law enforcement officials, and the cultural prestige of the Church to prevent survivors from achieving justice.

Weakland once wrote in his column for the archdiocesan newspaper that “not all...victims are so innocent. Some of them are streetwise and savvy.” And in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel six years later, he dangerously equated homosexuality with pedophilia, while offering his opinion that when a priest offender is no longer sexually interested in a child after they reach a certain age, “that’s when the squealing comes in” and “you have to deal with it.”

Weakland did not act alone. Many of his co-conspirators in the cover-up will be presiding at the altar and kneeling in the pews Tuesday afternoon. In the announcement of Weakland’s death, Archbishop Listecki made no mention of sexual abuse and cover-up. We expect he will make no mention of it during Tuesday’s service.

Although the disgraced archbishop apologized for his “sinfulness” in a hush money settlement of an abuse claim against him, he never asked for forgiveness or publicly apologized directly to the thousands of victims for his role in their abuse.

By holding a public celebration of Weakland’s life and career, Archbishop Listecki is signaling his endorsement of Weakland’s leadership. Victims are alarmed that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is returning to Weakland’s patterns and practices including the concealment of criminal evidence of child sexual abuse.

Attorney General Josh Kaul is in possession of Church documents that indicate that the number of alleged offenders under Weakland’s watch is much higher than the 48 publicly-identified clergy, and there may be as many as 218 additional offenders.

If the Archdiocese of Milwaukee wants to repair the harm caused by Archbishop Rembert Weakland, they must start with the truth. Tens of thousands of pages of court-ordered released documents demonstrate Archbishop Weakland’s complicity in the facilitation of child sexual abuse. But this is only a fraction of the material held by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in the archdiocese’s secret archive. Listecki publicly refused to turn this over to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul last year. He must do so now. 

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Former Archbishop Rembert Weakland Dies: Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse Respond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8-22-22

Statement by Peter Isely: 

This afternoon, it was announced that former Archbishop Rembert Weakland died at age 95.

His legacy, no doubt, will be described as “complex” and “controversial” -- appointed to run the Milwaukee Archdiocese, he soon became the liberal icon of the American hierarchy, his hopes to become a Cardinal dashed with the ascendency of John Paul II and the return and triumph of the conservative church. His many gifts, his concert-level piano playing, his mastery of several languages, and his intellect -- will be enumerated and praised. 

Yet the specter that cast itself over the life of Weakland, one that his death will not erase or ameliorate, is his role as chief architect in the widespread and systematic abuse of children by clergy of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Thousands of children were harmed under his watch, and he bears the responsibility. 

During his tenure as Archbishop of Milwaukee, Weakland transferred dozens of known sex offenders into new assignments where they were warmly welcomed by trusting Catholic families. These offenders then proceeded to abuse their children. 

Weakland coerced survivors into signing predatory settlement agreements and wielded the full force of the institutional Church including highly-paid corporate lawyers, complicit law enforcement officials, and the cultural prestige of the Church to prevent survivors from achieving justice. 

He led the team that effectively rewrote Wisconsin state law to prevent future abuse claims from moving forward in the court system, making it “nearly impossible” to file a civil claim against the Church. After victims’ cases against Weakland had to be dropped because of this change, he then instructed his lawyers to sue victims for court costs, even in cases where the priests had admitted their crimes to Weakland. No bishop before or after Weakland has deployed such an aggressive tactic to intimidate and silence victims. 

His legacy is that after 30 years of continuous public exposure, survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Wisconsin have fewer paths to justice today than they did decades earlier.  

If the Archdiocese of Milwaukee wants to repair the harm caused by Archbishop Rembert Weakland, they must start with the truth. Tens of thousands of pages of court-ordered released documents demonstrate Archbishop Weakland’s complicity in the facilitation of child sexual abuse. But this is only a fraction of the material held by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in the archdiocese’s secret archive. Listecki publicly refused to turn this over to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul last year. He must do so now.  

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Attorney General Kaul downgrades clergy abuse "investigation" to review

Change in language demonstrates Kaul's unwillingness to exercise legal authority to obtain Church documents and evidence of child sexual abuse and cover-up

On Monday night, WBAY aired an exclusive interview with Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul where he refused to refer to his clergy and faith leader abuse initiative as an "investigation" - opting for the term review instead.

In a new video, Nate's Mission has compiled reporting and direct quotes from the Attorney General that unmistakably identify the DOJ's efforts as an investigation. 

This reversal in language demonstrates Kaul’s unwillingness to exercise the legal authority that he and the five district attorneys supporting his "investigation" have under Wisconsin law to subpoena Church documents and evidence and compel testimony from Church officials involved in the institutional concealment of rape and sexual abuse of children.

This is contrary to statements Kaul made last year when he expressed hope that Wisconsin’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders would “cooperate with the investigation” and urged survivors to report abuse saying, “there has never been a statewide independent investigation of the issue of clergy and faith leader abuse in Wisconsin'' like the one his office had opened. On their own website, www.supportsurvivors.widoj.gov, the DOJ advertises a list of articles that classify their efforts as an investigation.

After taking credit for having undertaken a “historic” and “sweeping investigation,” Kaul’s DOJ took several steps to assure Church officials and their corporate lawyers that they were not under investigation. 
 

• When the Milwaukee Archdiocese publicly refused to cooperate with the DOJ by turning over abuse documents, Kaul’s office declined to challenge them, citing their “aggressive attorneys” and the “politically-charged Supreme Court in the state”  

• After Church attorneys demanded the DOJ hand over documents obtained by Church whistleblowers, the DOJ complied by giving them documents containing evidence of potential criminal conduct, including fraud. 

• Despite having assured survivors that they had the resources available to conduct an investigation, their Victim Service Specialist emailed a survivor saying “investigating is too strong of a word” and that “the reality is $$$.”

For 30 years, survivors begged the Wisconsin DOJ to open a statewide investigation into clergy abuse and coverup by Church officials. The Attorney General solemnly promised survivors he would do this, calling his initiative an “investigation,” asking for their blessing, and inviting them to stand with him at the announcement where he called it an "investigation." 

Kaul owes survivors an explanation.

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Survivors release video with new recordings of AG Kaul and staff

Kaul's office gave whistleblower documents to Church lawyers fearing Archdiocese's "aggressive attorneys" and a "politically-charged" Supreme Court

This morning, Nate’s Mission released a new video depicting our advocacy surrounding Attorney General Kaul’s investigation into clergy sexual abuse, including the process leading up to the announcement and our response to the investigation’s progress. The video features the recent history of our advocacy in Wisconsin beginning with our revelations of failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate and Church lawyer, Matt Flynn's, role in cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. The video incorporates audio recordings from several calls between Nate’s Mission and Kaul's administration and email messages from the DOJ to survivors. 

The audio recordings appear to demonstrate false promises made to survivors surrounding resources allotted toward the investigation (19:50) and the DOJ’s reticence to work with Church documents containing potential criminal evidence provided by whistleblowers due to the “politically charged” Supreme Court and the Church’s “aggressive attorneys” (18:37).  

We didn’t record our calls with the Attorney General’s office to create a “gotcha” moment for Josh Kaul and his staff. We take no joy in releasing this to the media. In fact, these recordings and the actions of the Wisconsin DOJ are a great source of pain for us, personally as survivors and advocates, for our organization, and for all victims of clergy abuse who expected more from Attorney General Kaul and his investigation. We agonized over this decision and ultimately chose to share this because Wisconsin survivors deserve to know it.

For thirty years, people who have been raped and sexually abused by Catholic clergy have been begging for a statewide investigation into the Church, a religious non-profit corporation in Wisconsin that has engaged in patterns and practices of raping and sexually abusing children and covering it up. 

After meeting with Kaul about the DOJ’s intent to investigate clergy sex abuse and cover up, Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops publicly and defiantly refused to cooperate. In response, the DOJ appears to have decided not to subpoena a single abuse-related document from Wisconsin’s five Catholic dioceses. This is hardly the case in other states with uncooperative bishops, like Michigan, where the AG demanded and obtained over four million pages of documents from its seven dioceses. Most alarmingly, when church lawyers demanded that Kaul turn over potential criminal evidence given to him by Church whistleblowers, the Wisconsin Attorney General fully complied. 

This problem is certainly not Kaul’s alone, but he has more power than any other single person in Wisconsin to finally fix this. As such, our demands for his office and for the district attorneys who support his investigation remain unchanged. 

• Subpoena documents and evidence from all five of Wisconsin’s Catholic dioceses as well as religious orders

• Compel testimony of Church officials

• Investigate potential charitable fraud

• Conduct outreach to survivors of sexual abuse at Catholic-run Indian boarding schools

The history of child sex abuse in the Church sadly shows that those who are charged with the public duty to protect children far too often protect the Church instead, which is why so few known clergy offenders and those who covered up these crimes have ever been prosecuted. The question now is: has this changed? Are the bishops of Wisconsin still more powerful than the Attorney General and other elected law enforcement officials? So far the answer seems to be “yes.” And this answer is dangerous for every child in Wisconsin, not just Catholic ones.

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Survivors to present report card on Attorney General Kaul's statewide clergy abuse and cover-up investigation

One year ago, Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops publicly refused to cooperate with the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation into child sexual abuse in faith-based organizations. On Tuesday, June 7th, survivors and advocates will hold a press conference outside the Wisconsin State Capitol to report on the progress of the investigation.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 7th, 2022 at 1:00pm

WHERE: State Capitol Building, State Street Entrance, Madison, Wisconsin

WHAT: A press conference featuring survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates including residential school survivors and members of the Menominee Tribe and a victim of murdered Madison priest Father Alfred Kunz

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Nate's Mission response to Green Bay Diocese statement regarding recent reports of child sexual abuse

As an anti-clergy abuse and survivors advocacy organization, the policy of Nate’s Mission is never to provide victim information or criminal evidence of cover-up to any church organization, entity or official currently under criminal or civil investigation. This is precisely why our organization delivered the church whistleblower documents to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul as well as Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Brown County District Attorney David Lasee. 

It is perhaps understandable that Green Bay church officials may not have many of these documents because, according to church whistleblower documents, they systematically destroyed a large portion of their criminal evidence. 

In this afternoon’s press release, the Green Bay diocese stated that they would provide documents relating to any “prosecutable crimes” to Attorney General Kaul’s office. Per Wisconsin state law, the Green Bay diocese does not possess the statutory authority to determine whether cases are prosecutable. Attorney General Kaul, however, does possess the authority to make these determinations and act accordingly. As such, we expect his office to issue subpoenas to retrieve evidence from the Green Bay diocese and compel the testimony of individuals involved in institutional concealment of criminal evidence. 

Nate’s Mission is urging whistleblowers or any individual in possession of information related to cover-up of child sexual abuse to continue to contact our organization through our website: www.natesmission.org. 

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Victims to deliver thousands of pages of clergy abuse-related documents from statewide church whistleblowers to WI AG Kaul's office Tuesday morning

Documents raise troubling questions as to Senator Ron Johnson's possible involvement in 2007 shredding of priest abuse files in Green Bay

WHEN: Tuesday, January 18th, 2022, at 11:30am

WHERE: State Capitol Building, State Street Entrance, Madison, Wisconsin

WHAT: The directors of Nate’s Mission, a Wisconsin-based project of Ending Clergy Abuse, will deliver to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul thousands of pages of secret abuse-related church documents obtained from church whistleblowers from across the state of Wisconsin. The documents contain material concerning all five Wisconsin dioceses and several state religious orders. 

WHY: Last April, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced that he was joining twenty-two attorneys general in launching a statewide investigation into the clergy abuse and cover-up crisis in faith-based organizations. In a press conference, Kaul promised to “follow the evidence wherever it leads” saying, “no detail is too small.” 

The new documents being turned over to Kaul include personnel files, meeting minutes in which church leaders discuss tactics and strategies to evade prosecution and transfer credibly accused clergy to new parishes, insurance paperwork, and internal lists of accused priests that contain almost twice as many names as those released to the general public, and more.

Among the materials gathered by the church whistleblowers is new evidence pertaining to the systematic destruction of abuse files by the Green Bay diocese in 2007. The destruction included criminal evidence, not only of hundreds of child sexual crimes by Green Bay priests, schoolteachers, and volunteers, but also possible charitable fraud by several top church officials managing abuse cases for the diocese. 

The order to destroy the documents was issued by then Bishop David Zubik on July 17th, 2007, six days after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision allowing victims to file fraud suits against the church was issued. This action was designed to destroy all evidence of fraud by church officials in abuse cases. Furthermore, it effectively prevented prosecutors from pursuing criminal investigations of clergy alleged to have abused children. The following day, July 18th, 2007, Zubik held a press conference announcing his promotion by the Vatican to be the next Bishop of Pittsburgh. 

In order to take this extreme action, Bishop Zubik, by canon law, would have been required to receive the approval of the Green Bay Diocesan Finance Council, a body on which Senator Ron Johnson served at the time, because it involved current and potential litigation. Less than three years later, Johnson, still a member of the Green Bay Diocesan Finance Council, was dispatched by church officials to testify against the Child Victims Act before the Wisconsin state legislature. At the time of his testimony, Johnson did not identify himself as a member of the Finance Council. If the Child Victims Act had passed in 2010, the alleged actions of Johnson and the Green Bay Diocese would likely have been uncovered in court proceedings.   

Among the newly obtained documents is a 2017 letter from the Green Bay diocese’s corporate lawyers to church officials instructing them to preserve documents related to child sexual abuse “indefinitely.” It is unknown if the diocese’s corporate lawyers had knowledge of the 2007 document destruction, but it clearly demonstrates that destroying such documents, as was done by the Green Bay Diocese and likely approved by Senator Ron Johnson and his finance council, may have been illegal or in violation of state law. 

When Attorney General Kaul opened his statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse and institutional concealment, he vowed to investigate actions such as those undertaken by the Green Bay Diocese and anyone who aided and abetted the coverup of child sex crimes, including commission of fraud. The Wisconsin Department of Justice has assured victims of their statutory authority over charitable trusts such as the Diocese of Green Bay. 

Johnson would not be the first prominent politician in the state of Wisconsin to assist a Catholic diocese in covering up child sex abuse. He is among well-known Democrats such as failed gubernatorial candidate and former head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Matt Flynn and longtime Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann. Johnson’s fellow Republican, disgraced former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, also aided the Green Bay Diocese in concealing and transferring one of their most notorious abusive clergy when he was the Outagamie County District Attorney. 

In meetings with survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Attorney General Kaul assured victims that he could be trusted to conduct a thorough and independent review of the evidence regardless of who was or is involved. Because of this promise, hundreds of victims in the state of Wisconsin have re-lived some of the worst moments of their lives recounting their abuse to representatives of his office. Wisconsin Catholic officials have openly announced that they will not cooperate with Kaul’s investigation. Statewide church whistleblowers have now provided evidence that demonstrates the necessity for Kaul to secure the release of documents by issuing subpoenas to Wisconsin dioceses and compelling the testimony of church officials. Given the evidence delivered to his office this week, anything short of these actions would be a betrayal of his promise.

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Global clergy abuse survivors and allies to urge USCCB to condemn Bannon's anti-gay rally in Baltimore

"Catholic groups equating homosexuality with pedophilia," they say, "are demonizing gay survivors of clergy abuse."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-15-21
 

BALTIMORE, Maryland - On Tuesday, November 16th at 11:00am, survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates will hold a press conference outside of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront (700 Aliceanna Street) urging the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Pope Francis to condemn the use of the abuse crisis by Church Militant and Steve Bannon to promote an anti-gay political agenda, a central tenet of Tuesday’s protest rally outside the USCCB’s general meeting.

For the past decade, Church Militant has capitalized off the rape and sexual abuse of children, using their suffering as an opportunity to court donors and gain followers. At the behest of their wealthy donors, like financier Marc Brammer, they have built a propaganda network to mobilize support for their agenda of re-criminalizing homosexuality by fear-mongering about the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups. By attributing the Catholic clergy abuse crisis to gay priests, they have contributed to heightened stigma around gay men while ignoring every non-male victim of clergy abuse.

Church Militant’s speakers and partners for the event have their own ties to sexual abuse and cover-up:

• Speaker and event partner, Steve Bannon, provided media coaching for Jeffrey Epstein, urging him to deny he was a pedophile, calling him a “sympathetic figure.” Bannon has worked closely with the virulently anti-gay Cardinal Burke, who kept a higher percentage of priests with allegations of child sex abuse in ministry than any other diocese in the United States. 

• Emcee Milo Yiannopoulos, at one point, dismissed the clergy abuse crisis saying, “We get hung up on this child abuse stuff…In the gay world, some of the most important enriching, and incredibly life-affirming, important, shaping relationships are between younger boys and older men. They can be hugely positive experiences very often for those young boys.” After facing backlash, he reversed his position, committing himself to the rehabilitation of conversion therapy, likening being gay to an “addiction.”    

• Former Apostolic Nuncio, Carlo Maria Viganò, in his infamous 2018 letter, where he accused Pope Francis of covering up the long history of sexual abuse by now-defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has argued that gay priests are the root cause of Catholic child sexual abuse. In his role as Apostolic Nuncio, Viganò himself covered up sexual abuse for several senior members of the Catholic hierarchy who abused children or concealed records, destroying criminal evidence in the process.     

Ending Clergy Abuse unequivocally denounces the linking of homosexuality to pedophilia, a right-wing Catholic myth that has been repeatedly refuted by medical and scientific experts. LGBTQ+ people are nearly four times more likely than non-LGBTQ+ people to experience violent victimization, including rape and sexual assault. To use survivors of rape and sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy as political pawns to criminalize homosexuality is a despicable act that the entire Catholic hierarchy - including Pope Francis - have not demonstrated the courage or integrity to rebuke.

Although Pope Francis has urged tolerance, in March, he signed off on a Vatican decree that called gay sex “intrinsically disordered,” and stated, God “does not and cannot bless sin.” While the Vatican avoids inflammatory language, they have essentially endorsed the same position as Church Militant and Steve Bannon. Perhaps this is why Pope Francis and the bishops have not condemned their protest. The Pope has stated that the Church must find a way to help Catholic parents “stand by their [LGBTQ+] son or daughter.” He and the USCCB could start by making it clear that the link between homosexuality and pedophilia is not supported by Catholic teaching.

In a year in which the unmarked graves of thousands of Indigenous children have been located at the sites of Catholic-run Indian boarding schools in the United States and Canada, the USCCB has chosen to ignore these atrocities to focus instead on fueling a Eucharistic culture war. Their leader, Archbishop Gomez, has openly attacked the movement for Black lives calling it a “dangerous substitute for true religion,” that promotes “intolerance” and “injustice,” rather than a fight for universal human dignity in the face of systemic racism and state-sponsored violence. In this and their refusal to denounce the hate rally outside their door, the US bishops have demonstrated an absorption in their own identity politics and a betrayal of the universal human rights proclaimed in the Gospel they claim to preach.
 

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Survivors call on Attorney General Kaul to investigate clergy sexual abuse at Indian residential schools as part of his Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse initiative

Tribal leaders and survivors are asking Kaul for a meeting to discuss abuse and deaths at residential schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-1-21
 

Tuesday evening (11/2) at 6:00pm, Native survivors of clergy abuse, members of the Menominee Tribe, and allies will gather at the Keshena Pavilion for an awareness walk and candlelight vigil to honor the lives of children who were abused and died at Catholic-run Indian residential schools in Wisconsin. In observance of All Soul’s Day in the Catholic Church, participants will walk from the Keshena Pavilion to St. Michael’s Church, where unmarked graves are located behind the church.

On June 22nd, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland opened the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to investigate the abuse and deaths of children at residential schools. The investigation was prompted by the confirmation that over 1,000 Indigenous children are buried in unmarked graves near residential schools in Canada. With over 367 boarding schools, 156 of them associated with the Catholic Church, the United States had over twice as many schools as Canada. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates that hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children attended these schools between 1869 and the 1960s. Twelve boarding schools were located in Wisconsin.

Survivors and activists from the Menominee Tribe are calling on Attorney General Josh Kaul to include sexual abuse that occurred at Catholic-run Indian residential schools and parishes as a part of his Clergy and Faith Leader Abuse investigation.

Additionally, they are asking for a meeting with Kaul to discuss his office’s outreach to current survivors of abuse. Thus far, members of the Menominee Tribe are not aware of any outreach by the Wisconsin Department of Justice to Indigenous communities regarding the Clergy and Faith Leader investigation.

In response to the candlelight vigil, administrators of the Green Bay Diocese have threatened to call the police to have survivors of child sexual abuse and advocates arrested. Bishop Ricken has not agreed to meet with Indigenous survivors despite multiple attempts by members of the Menominee Tribe to contact the diocese to schedule a meeting. Indigenous survivors of clergy sexual abuse are asking for all Catholic dioceses and religious orders in Wisconsin possessing documentation and evidence of historical and current criminal acts of abuse against Indigenous people to be turned over to investigators with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the United States Department of the Interior.

Survivors, their friends and family, or anyone who has information about the church’s response to abuse are encouraged to report clergy and faith leader abuse online at SupportSurvivors.widoj.gov or by calling 877-222-2620.

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