Bishop Sklba dies; Clergy abuse survivors respond
Sklba once called practice of returning abuser priests to ministry an “experiment”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-21-2024
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced today that Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Sklba has died.
Appointed an auxiliary bishop under the leadership of Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Sklba was Weakland’s right-hand man when it came to handling cases of rape and sexual abuse of children in the Milwaukee archdiocese. Weakland referred to Sklba as his “main go-to guy” in cases of sexual abuse in a 2008 desposition.
Thousands of pages of documents related to sexual abuse and its institutional concealment show that Sklba played a central role in transferring dozens of known sex offenders to new parishes without informing congregations, law enforcement, or the public. These documents were released in 2014 as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese's 2011 bankruptcy.
Under Sklba’s direct oversight, documents show that at least 23 priests with confirmed histories of sexually assaulting children were secretly transferred to new assignments. Seven of these priests were transferred more than once. Two were transferred five times.
With archdiocesan corporate attorneys, Sklba devised a strategy to pay off offender priests to secretly leave the priesthood, rather than facing possible criminal investigation or a church trial to remove them from the priesthood. Some of these priests were vocationally retrained for jobs with children and families before leaving the priesthood, several as counselors and psychologists licensed by the State of Wisconsin.
In a 1996 letter, Sklba referred to a program he oversaw, in which offender priests were secretly released back into Milwaukee parishes, as an “experiment.”
Peter Isely, clergy abuse survivor and Nate’s Mission program director said, “Next to former Archbishop Weakland, no single person is more responsible for the widespread sexual abuse and suffering of thousands of children in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee over several decades than Bishop Sklba. No Catholic leader in recent memory has so misled, deceived, and harmed so many Catholic families. Along with his routine pastoral duties and academic biblical scholarship, he spent his considerable energy, charm, and intelligence to orchestrate and maintain what can only be called one of the most consequential and damaging criminal conspiracies to obstruct justice and harm innocent children in the history of our community.”
###