Sex Offenders from Milwaukee Archdiocese Pose Child Safety Concerns, Say State and National Experts

SNAP Wisconsin
March 13, 2012

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Sex offenders from Milwaukee archdiocese pose child safety concerns, say state and national experts

Some have found their way into new occupations with children and families

Others remain unidentified, or investigations languishing

WHAT

Victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse, holding childhood photos and signs, will reveal several current examples of clergy who have assaulted children in the Milwaukee archdiocese who are currently working in licensed or credentialed occupations that give them professional access to children and families. The examples are in response to comments made by Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley in court last week who suggested that clergy who have abused children from the archdiocese pose no public safety issue. According to 350 of 570 victim claims filed in court, along with previous archdiocesan records tabulated before the bankruptcy, at least 8,000 incidents of child sex assault and abuse were committed in the archdiocese over the past 50 years by at least 144 clergy, employees and volunteers. 100 of these individuals have yet to be identified by the archdiocese as abusers, 75 of them priests.

Victims will release a statement, issued Tuesday morning, from WCASA, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which represents 46 sexual assault agencies and crisis centers, disputing Judge Kelley’s observations. Also joining survivors will be the co-director of the Boston based BishopAccountabilty.org, the world’s largest and most extensive research organization and archive dedicated to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

WHERE

Outside of St. Mary’s Visitation Parish (where, for over a year, an accused cleric remains pastor), 1260 Church Street, Elm Grove.

WHEN

Tuesday, March 13th, 1:30 p.m.

CONTACT

Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259

John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director, 414.336.8575

Mike Sneesby, SNAP Milwaukee Director, 414.915.4374

Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability Co-Director, 781.439.5208