Wauwatosa Police Open Second Investigation on Priest

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 7, 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/wauwatosa-police-open-second-investigation-on-priest-d39rl8d-206509291.html

Wauwatosa police have launched a second investigation into a local priest who was removed from his posts at two parishes and schools for suspicion of inappropriate contact with children.

The department confirmed Monday that a new investigation of Father Robert Marsicek is ongoing but declined to provide additional information about the allegation.

Both the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Marsicek's religious order, the Society of the Divine Savior, known as the Salvatorians, said they were unaware of a new probe. And the principal of Wauwatosa Catholic School, where an earlier allegation was raised, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Marsicek was suspended from ministry at St. Pius X Catholic Parish in Wauwatosa, Mother of Good Counsel Parish and School in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa Catholic School after a teacher at Wauwatosa Catholic reported in March that Marsicek inappropriately touched a young girl.

According to the police report, the teacher told detectives that Marsicek had squeezed the buttocks of a girl as she sat on his lap and held his hand on her thigh while whispering in her ear. In a forensic interview, the child also indicated that Marsicek had squeezed her breast area.

Marsicek maintained that he was just being affectionate and that any inappropriate touching was inadvertent. The Milwaukee County district attorney's office declined to file charges.

Marsicek had a history of questionable contact with children during his 12 years at St. Pius X and had been counseled repeatedly by the archdiocese and the Salvatorians to stop touching the children, according to documents obtained by police.

Both the archdiocese and Salvatorians had known since May 2012 that Marsicek was under investigation in Sacramento, Calif., for alleged sexual abuse of a minor in the 1980s to 1990s.

But neither took steps to remove him until Wauwatosa police banned him from the schools during their investigation.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki suggested late last month in a letter to local Catholics that the church may have erred by not removing Marsicek earlier.