Church whistleblowers provide Nate's Mission with list of over 200 allegedly unreported abusive priests, 69 from Green Bay
Natalie Eilbert/USA-Today Network-Green Bay
Natalie Eilbert, Green Bay Press-Gazette, January 20th, 2022
GREEN BAY - Advocates claim they have obtained thousands of documents from whistleblowers inside the church that reveal over 200 allegedly abusive priests were kept secret across the five Wisconsin dioceses, 69 of whom have associations with the Diocese of Green Bay.
On Thursday, Peter Isely, program director of Nate's Mission, and Sarah Pearson, its deputy director, stood in the lobby of the Brown County Courthouse with a message for Brown County District Attorney David Lasee: investigate their list of priests.
Isely did not show the Green Bay Press-Gazette the contents of the package or any of the documents to allow the newspaper to independently verify the organization's claims.
"We're here (in Green Bay), we were in Madison, in Milwaukee, because of these whistleblowers — church whistleblowers, people who are part of the church and have a conscience," Isely said. "We're delivering criminal evidence of child abuse, widespread child abuse and corporate cover-up of that abuse."
Nate's Mission, an organization pushing for a full accounting of clergy abuse in Wisconsin, is named after the late Nate Lindstrom of Green Bay, who accused multiple priests from St. Norbert Abbey of abuse. Lindstrom received $420,000 in secret payments from the Catholic order over 10 years until the abbey stopped sending checks in 2019. He died by suicide in 2020.
Currently, a list of 50 names appears on the Diocese of Green Bay's public disclosure list of abusive priests Isely claims an additional 69 priests are on the list.
Green Bay was the second stop in a week to Wisconsin law offices. On Tuesday, Isely and Pearson turned over thousands of documents to the office of Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Among the papers handed over to Kaul's office was allegedly evidence that the Diocese of Green Bay destroyed filings in 2007, according to the advocacy group.
The decision to destroy the documents, made by then-Bishop David Zubik, prevented prosecutors from pursuing criminal investigations of clergy, a release from Nate's Mission said.
According to the advocacy group, the documents contain alleged systematic cover-ups across the five state dioceses that incriminate powerful individuals, from Zubik to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, who served on the Green Bay Diocesan Finance Council when key filings were destroyed.
Johnson has denied any knowledge of and involvement in the destruction of documents.
Natalie Eilbert/USA Today Network-Green Bay
According to the advocacy group, the records show personnel reports, parish transfers (of allegedly abusive priests) and minutes from church leaders discussing tactics and strategies to evade prosecution.
In addition to the 69 additional names Nate's Mission has records for in Green Bay, Pearson said they have evidence for 218 more priests associated with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee lists only 48 names on its current page of restricted priests, meaning there could potentially be a discrepancy of 170 priests.
In response to these new allegations of abuse, Justine Lodl, communications director for Diocese of Green Bay, released a media statement acknowledging the press release announced by Nate's Mission but reserving any further comment at this time. The Diocese of Green Bay emphasized, however, the importance of protecting children and vulnerable adults.
"The diocese has, over the past several decades, implemented a variety of tools to ensure the safety of every person in the diocese, including background checks, rigorous safe environment training and education, mandatory reporting mechanisms and outreach to survivors of abuse," said the statement.
To this, Isely wants to know "where the 69 lost offenders" in the Dioceses of Green Bay are. And Pearson said statements like this are hollow and often repeat "the same five sentences" without showing true accountability.
In August, Kaul announced that two cases were reported directly to the Brown County District Attorney's Office. One case was current, and the other was from a few decades ago, according to the Sexual Assault Center of Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin.
Isely said he hopes that Lasee "puts the heat up" on the Diocese of Green Bay with this new information.
RELATED:First came sex abuse allegations at the abbey. Then secret payments. Then a suicide.
Natalie Eilbert is a government watchdog reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert.