Clergy abuse survivors alarmed by Milwaukee Archbishop-Designate Grob’s abuse record in Chicago
Victims call on US bishops’ National Review Board to investigate Grob’s handling of clergy abuse allegations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-4-2024
This morning, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced that Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob has been named as the next Archbishop of Milwaukee. Grob was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 2020. He will be installed January 14, 2025.
Survivors are deeply alarmed by the choice of Grob given his history in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
In September of 2022, Father David Ryan was temporarily removed from St. Francis de Sales in Lake Zurich, Illinois after a second round of allegations of abuse. Fr. Ryan was under the direct supervision of Bishop Grob.
Ryan had previously been reinstated in December of 2021 after facing allegations of abuse in fall of 2020. While the Archdiocese of Chicago was conducting an investigation into the alleged abuse, parishioners of St. Francis de Sales were encouraged to send letters of support for Fr. Ryan to Bishop Grob.
Parishioners of St. Francis de Sales were encouraged to send letters of support to Fr. David Ryan during an ongoing investigation into a second round of allegations of abuse
Source: St. Francis de Sales Lake Zurich Virtual Bulletin
Instead of ensuring the investigation process was safe for victims and witnesses and encouraging anyone with information to come forward, Grob’s focus was on the comfort and protection of the twice-accused cleric. Grob referred to the allegations as a “very unfair set of circumstances” and a “tough patch” for Fr. Ryan, pledging to “do everything possible to restore Fr. Ryan’s good name.”
As a key member of the senior management of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Grob had knowledge of hundreds of cases of sexual abuse, which were investigated in the Illinois Attorney General’s clergy abuse report released in 2023. The report concluded that the Archdiocese of Chicago showed a pattern of concealing and mismanaging allegations.
In January 2025, Archbishop-Designate Grob 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 current Archbishop Jerome Listecki.
Grob will oversee an unknown number of clerics who have been accused of sexual abuse and administrators who have covered it up.
Victims are writing to the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), urging the board to investigate Grob’s conduct handling allegations of abuse in the Archdiocese of Chicago, specifically the allegations against Fr. Ryan and possible intimidation of victims and witnesses during the internal investigation.
Survivors will also contact the Wisconsin DOJ to alert AG Kaul’s clergy abuse investigators of Grob’s conduct.
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