Abandoned, let down, betrayed.

Dear friends,
 

We launched Nate’s Mission on March 9th, 2021: the one-year anniversary of Nate Lindstrom’s death. Nate took his life after the Church abruptly ended payments intended to support his mental health treatment. Why was he relying on the Church for this? Because there were no available avenues to justice through the State of Wisconsin for the abuse he endured at the hands of priests in his school.

We met Nate because he had gotten involved with a small group of survivors and alumni who wanted justice for the crimes against him and so many of his classmates. It was Nate’s dying wish that what happened to him would never happen to anyone else. We began this organization to make that a reality. It was the relentless advocacy of survivors across the state and the righteous demands of Nate’s family, classmates, and friends in the wake of his death that led Attorney General Kaul to finally open a statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse and cover-up.

Photo by Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nate’s family held his picture as they stood behind Kaul when he promised to follow the evidence where it leads. We’ve seen a great deal of the evidence. We’ve reviewed thousands of pages of documents - some publicly available and some obtained by Church whistleblowers. And we can tell you where the evidence leads: to Church administrators who concealed and enabled the abuse, to law enforcement officials who looked the other way, and to community elites who sit on the Church boards and councils that were complicit in all of it.

We’ve challenged AG Kaul to obtain this evidence because it is essential to any investigation that attempts to account for the full scope and magnitude of sexual abuse in Wisconsin’s Catholic dioceses and religious orders. Justice for survivors is not possible without an examination of how these brutal crimes against Wisconsin’s children were allowed to continue for decades without intervention from any of the authorities who were responsible for their protection. Anything less than this is simply not acceptable.

This is why we’ve spent the better part of the last year putting pressure on Attorney General Kaul to keep his promise to survivors by using the full authority of the Wisconsin DOJ to obtain evidence from the Church and compel testimony of officials involved in cover-up. After holding a press conference where we publicly stated our concerns regarding the DOJ’s investigation, Kaul finally admitted the truth: the Wisconsin DOJ is not investigating clergy sexual abuse and cover-up. They are simply reviewing survivor reports and making referrals.

This comes after countless TV reports, newspaper stories, and Kaul himself identified the clergy and faith leader initiative as an “investigation.” We’ve compiled such examples in a video we released this week.

Kaul’s downgrading of the “investigation” to a “review” is devastating to every survivor who expected more and personally hurtful to those of us who were used to promote the “investigation” and urge whistleblowers to report. Once again, we feel abandoned and betrayed. But that does not mean we will stop fighting for the justice survivors deserve.

There is still time for Kaul to keep his promise and we will not stop demanding this of him. We are asking you, dear friends, to stay with us in this fight. Write to Attorney General Kaul and insist he keep his promise to survivors. Share this message with your family and friends. Donate to Nate’s Mission so we can continue to hold the DOJ accountable.

In solidarity with every survivor, especially those who are no longer with us, 

Nate’s Mission