Bishop Grob agrees to meet with clergy abuse survivor group
Archdiocese of Milwaukee threatened to arrest abuse victims outside Monday night prayer service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1-13-2025
Survivors and advocates of Nate’s Mission gathered outside a prayer service for incoming Archbishop Grob Monday night to hold a press conference and deliver a letter from Milwaukee clergy abuse victims to the newly promoted prelate.
After the press conference and before the prayer service began, Archdiocese of Milwaukee communication director Sandra Peterson threatened to have victims arrested, telling survivors they were not welcome at the prayer service and were forbidden from touching the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
As Milwaukee-area Catholics entered the cathedral, two Milwaukee police officers were dispatched to form a barrier between victims and the prayer service.
Thankfully, survivors were able to safely deliver their letter to Bishop Grob, who cordially accepted the letter and promised to meet with Nate’s Mission soon.
In the letter, shown below, clergy abuse victims have prepared a list of priorities pertaining to clergy sexual abuse for Grob’s first 100 days in office.
January 13, 2025
Dear Archbishop-Designate Grob,
We are writing to you as clergy abuse survivors and advocates of Nate’s Mission. Our organization is named for Nate Lindstrom, a clergy abuse survivor who tragically died by suicide in 2020 when the church abruptly stopped support for his mental health treatment. Nate’s personal mission was to see that what happened to him as a child, and again as an adult navigating the church’s response to his abuse, would never happen to another person. In that spirit, we approach you with a series of urgent requests regarding your new responsibility for all the vulnerable, both children and adults, who have been sexually assaulted by religious leaders of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The name “Nathan” holds a dual meaning for our group. Nathan Lindstrom was a beloved son, brother, father, and fellow survivor. The Old Testament prophet Nathan was called to confront King David for his transgressions. Like Nate Lindstrom and Nathan the prophet, we have found ourselves in this most difficult position of confronting the powerful with sexual sin. In the case of the Archbishop of Milwaukee, these sexual sins are egregious crimes of sexual violence, committed under their leadership and enabled through their concealment from the public and their failure to hold the perpetrators accountable.
For this confrontation, Archbishop Rembert Weakland called us “squealers.” Cardinal Timothy Dolan called us a “problem.” Your direct predecessor, Archbishop Jerome Listecki rejected our “agenda” and refused to meet with us.
We are your “problem” now. And our “agenda” is simple: justice for survivors of clergy abuse and the end of sexual abuse and its institutional concealment in the Milwaukee archdiocese.
As you begin your tenure, we urge you to take these five critical steps within your first 100 days to repair the harm inflicted on survivors by your predecessors, end the cover-up of sexual violence, and promote accountability in your church:
Schedule a meeting with abuse survivors and advocates of Nate’s Mission.
When you spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times last month, you stated regarding clergy sexual abuse in the Milwaukee archdiocese, “I have not studied the matter.” We were astonished and alarmed by this given the severity of the abuse and cover-up in Milwaukee and the long history of survivor advocacy in your home state. This is why it is imperative we meet as soon as possible to discuss what must be done to repair the harm to survivors, their loved ones, and Milwaukee’s Catholic community and eradicate the environment in which abuse and cover-up have thrived.
Provide all abuse-related documents and evidence to the Wisconsin DOJ.
Upon your installation tomorrow afternoon, you will inherit thousands of pages of documents and criminal evidence pertaining to the rape and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. These documents have been withheld from Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s statewide clergy abuse investigation by outgoing Archbishop Jerome Listecki.
Archbishop Listecki did not only defy state authorities, but the Pope himself. In December 2019, Pope Francis abolished a church law which allowed bishops to withhold documents and evidence from civil and criminal authorities in all abuse-related investigations.
You must demonstrate an absolute reversal of this hostile approach to law enforcement and abuse survivors by being transparent with church records pertaining to sexual crimes against your flock.
Update the Milwaukee archdiocese’s list of “restricted priests.”
A recent report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times identified the list of 48 restricted priests on the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s website as one of the “least comprehensive” in the country. The report recognized over 90 religious figures omitted from the Milwaukee archdiocese’s list who have been classified as credibly accused by other dioceses and religious orders and who at one point “lived, ministered, visited or potentially offended” within the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Furthermore, Nate’s Mission has received documents and evidence from Archdiocese of Milwaukee whistleblowers that include a list containing names and descriptions of abuse allegations against over 200 priests, nuns, Catholic teachers, coaches, and volunteers who are not included on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s list of restricted priests. Stunningly, some of these Catholic leaders appear to be ministering to children and families in your new archdiocese.
As survivors, it was deeply painful and retraumatizing to view this list which included detailed descriptions of allegations of harm inflicted on the most vulnerable in your new diocese such as:
A teenage girl raped at knifepoint by a seminarian
A teenage boy raped by a Franciscan friar and told he wouldn’t see his parents again if he did not comply
Young boys forced to perform sexual acts on each other by a dorm supervisor while he and another priest watched
A young girl physically assaulted by a nun and brought to a closet where she was forced to perform oral sex on priest
A young boy raped by a priest in the boiler room and told he would be thrown in the fire if he told anyone
A teenage boy drugged and raped by a church organist
A teenage boy burned by a salve applied on his genitals by a hospital chaplain
A young girl raped by a priest who threatened to kill her mother if she told her about the abuse
In the best interest of public safety and in service of justice for what is described in these documents, we provided these lists to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office. Milwaukee Archdiocese lawyers, against the will of survivors, fought to ensure law enforcement could not access records related to these abuse claims to stop any investigation into them.
Immediately remove any individuals who collaborated in the cover-up of sexual abuse from positions of leadership - especially those involved in or aware of the concealment and transfer of known clergy sex offenders from one parish to another.
This includes longtime spokesperson and Chief of Staff, Jerry Topczewski, and Chancellor Barbara Anne Cusack. Publicly available documents, posted on your website, and victim accounts, appear to demonstrate that both actively assisted former Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba in facilitating the cover-up of child sexual abuse by dozens of clergy over several decades. Their continued presence in leadership undermines public trust, accountability, and any attempt at meaningful reform
Rename Bishop Sklba’s “Peacemaker Award.”
On December 3rd, we wrote to you regarding the annual “Peacemaker Award,” named after Bishop Sklba and given to middle-school students in Racine. Given his extensive role in the cover-up of child sexual abuse, this award is not merely insensitive; it is retraumatizing for many survivors, especially since the victims often share the same age as those being honored.
We again insist that you take immediate action to rename this award in honor of someone who has genuinely committed to protecting children and ensuring accountability.
We look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Peter Isely
Nate’s Mission
Program Director
Sarah Pearson
Nate’s Mission
Deputy Director
James Egan
Archangel Foundation
President