GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), held a news conference explaining they sent a letter to state Attorney General Josh Kaul to launch a statewide investigation of clergy sex abuse and alleged cover-up.
The press conference was held in front of St. Francis Xavier on Madison Street in Green Bay.
“That list that was released is not complete.”
Abuse survivor and founding member of SNAP Peter Isely says Green Bay diocese did release the names of 46 priests and deacons with sexual abuse allegations but says the list is incomplete.
“We insist that every cleric that has sexually assaulted that raped a child in this diocese is identified by this Bishop.”
Isley says this action is not uncommon, as 15 states have the Attorney General looking into clergy allegations.
He says the list that was released to the public also lack details or any description about each offender, including what parishes that person was working in at the time.
“When you got that report, what did you do with it? How knew about it? What were all the parishes that these people were in?”
It also does not list any member of the clergy that is in the Norbertines or Franciscans religious order.
According to SNAP, 16 Norbetine Order priests that served time in Green Bay had been accused of abuse, but were not on the list.
Isley says other dioceses have given that information to the public in the past.
“It is unexpectable that Bishop Ricken has not done what other Bishops have done. He can do it, he can do it today and he needs to do it.”
SNAP is also requesting that an investigation is done to the destruction of abusive priest files revealed in 2007 by the former Bishop David Zubeck.
“Those files were destroyed because this diocese was about to face civil lawsuits concerning the institutional cover-up of these crimes by the Bishops of this diocese.”
SNAP is also asking AG Kaul to investigate the cover up in other Wisconsin dioceses.
“It is not a list about clerics that have not paid their library fines. These are not minor crimes, they are crimes against children.”
Isely says that victims of the abuse deserve to have the process be complete and thorough.
“How many of these individuals on this list have seen criminal justice for what they have done? How many have been in prison? How many of them have been arrested? How many have been investigated?
He argues that any cleric that works or lives in the diocese is under the Bishop.
In a letter to citizens, Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith says it is the Green Bay Police Department’s job to investigate sexual abuse allegations.
He says it is important that incidents of sexual abuse be reported.
Along with that, Smith says he urges any organization that that has evidence or records of sexual abuse to turn that information over to law enforcement.
