Assignment Record – Rev. Robert R. Marsicek, SDS Marsicek was suspended from active ministry in March 2013, when he was investigated by police for incidents involving a young girl at Wauwatosa Catholic School. (Wauwatosa Catholic School was created in 2011 from the merger of St. Pius X school and and another parish school. It serves children from preschool age to 8th grade.) On March 27, /2013, a WCS teacher had told Wauwatosa police that she witnessed three incidents in recent days of Marsicek inappropriately touching one of her young students. On April 13, 2013, the pastor of Marsicek's former parish in Orangedale CA read a letter at Masses revealing that Marsicek allegedly had sexually abused two children there in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Sacramento diocese had reported the allegations to the Milwaukee archdiocese and the Salvatorians in May 2012. WI church officials did nothing at the time to restrict Marsicek’s ministry; until the March 2013 news reports, he remained pastor of the two parishes with access to children in their grade schools and day-care programs. In mid-April 2013, after the Milwaukee district attorney announced that he would not be charging Marsicek, Wauwatosa police released a detailed investigative report to local media. The report revealed numerous complaints and “red flags” about Marsicek dating back years. A mother had told the St. Pius X principal in approximately 2006 that her daughter, then in kindergarten or first grade, had complained of Marsicek touching her genitalia. Marsicek himself admitted to police that parents had complained about his behavior in around 2007 and in 2012. The police report also summarized the personnel files that had been maintained by the Milwaukee archdiocese and by the Salvatorians. These revealed repeated complaints by parents, teachers and day-care providers about Marsicek’s inappropriate behavior with children. The archdiocesan file included a 2005 letter to then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan from his chancellor citing parents' concern about “possible boundary issues.” The church files also showed that school and church officials repeatedly counseled Marsicek to stop touching children. Also in April 2013, a woman from Manitowoc County WI (Green Bay diocese) told the Journal Sentinel and the Salvatorians of allegations against Marsicek from when he served in a parish there in the 1970s. On February 22, 2017, Marsicek was criminally charged with three counts of felony sexual assault of a girl, beginning when she was six years old. The alleged abuses occurred at St. Pius X parish and school in Wauwatosa WI from 2007 to 2010. Ordained: 1968 |
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| Start | Stop | Parish/Assignment | Town/Accusations | State | Position | Notes |
1968 Washington D.C. archbishop was Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947-1973). |
1969 | Divine Savior Seminary | Lanham | MD | ||
1969 Green Bay bishop was Aloysius John Wycislo (1968-1983). |
1973 | St. Gregory's | St. Nazianz • A woman told a news source in April 2013 of allegations against Marsicek stemming from his time working in Manitowoc County in the 1970s. |
WI | 2/2 | St. Gregory's had a school with 75-67 boys and 86-101 girls. |
1973 Phoenix bishop was Edward Anthony McCarthy (1969-1976). |
1974 | St. Mark's | Phoenix | AZ | 2/5 | St .Mark's had a school with 241 students. |
| 1973 | 1974 | Arizona State Hospital | Phoenix | AZ | This was a station of St. Mark's in Phoenix. | |
| 1973 | 1974 | Maricopa Children's Hospital | Maricopa | AZ | This was a station of St. Mark's in Phoenix. | |
| 1973 | 1974 | Hilton Rest Home | AZ | This was a station of St. Mark's in Phoenix. | ||
1974 Birmingham bishop was Joseph Gregory Vath (1969-1987). |
1987 | St. Joseph's | Huntsville | AL | 1/2, 2/2, 2/3, 1/2 | St. Joseph's had a school with 183-265 students. |
| 1983 | 1987 | St. John the Baptist | Madison | AL | This was a mission of St. Joseph's in Huntsville. | |
1987 Sacramento bishop was Francis Anthony Quinn (1979-1993), followed by William Keith Weigand (1993-2008). |
2000 | Divine Savior | Orangevale • Sacramento police received a report in 2012 that Marsicek had molested two boys from this parish, who were brothers, in the late 1980s and 1990s. One of the boys told his mother he was sexually abused by Marsicek on camping trips. |
CA | 1/2, 1/3 | Marsicek co-founded this parish in 1987. Divine Savior had a religious education program with 288-432 students. |
| 1990 | 2000 | Catholic Committee on Scouting | Sacramento | CA | diocesan chaplain | |
2000 Milwaukee archbishop was Rembert George Weakland, O.S.B. (1977-2002), followed by Timothy Michael Dolan (2002-2009), and Jerome Edward Listecki (2009-). |
2001 | Salvatorian Provincial Residence | Milwaukee | WI | ||
June 2001
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2011 | St. Pius X | Wauwatosa • Marsicek's personnel file, as summarized in an April 2013 Wauwatosa police report, reveals that St. Pius X 's before and after-school daycare workers expressed concern about his behaviors with children. Marsicek would invite certain children to his living quarters, after which they would return to the daycare with candy and stuffed animals. Marsicek's superiors' response was to not allow him to have children in his apartment. He was, however, allowed to continue to visit them in the program. • In 2005 a mother reported to the school that Marsicek had indecently touched her five-year-old daughter. The acting vice-principal questioned the little girl, who then changed her story. Marsicek's church files contained no record of the mother's complaint. It came to light in 2013 after the mother learned of the new allegations and called the police. • On February 22, 2017, Marsicek was criminally charged with three counts of felony sexual assault of another girl, beginning when she was six years old. The alleged abuses occurred at St. Pius X parish and school from September 2007 to June 2010. According to the Journal Sentinel's report of the criminal complaint, the girl said that Marsicek "at one point laid on her and touched her breasts and at another reached under her jumper to 'pat' her vagina." |
WI | 2/2, 1/1 | St. Pius X had a school with 143-120 students and a religious education program with 156-231 students. Marsicek was told repeatedly by his superiors in the archdiocese and his order to stop hugging and touching children, and was counseled about boundary issues. Archbishop Dolan was aware of complaints against Marsicek in 2005. In 2011, St, Pius X parish school merged with the elementary school of nearby St. Brendan parish. The new entity was built on St. Brendan's parish campus and is called Wauwatosa Catholic School.
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| 2006 | 2012 | Archdiocesan Consultors |
Milwaukee | WI | ||
| 2008 | March 2013 | Mother of Good Counsel | Milwaukee | WI | 1/1 | Mother of Good Counsel had a school with 253-203 students and a religious education program with 95 students |
| 2011 | March 2013 | Wauwatosa Catholic School | Wauwatosa • Marsicek was accused by a teacher of inappropriately touching a Wauwatosa Catholic School student in March 2013. The teacher told police she saw Marsicek on separate occasions squeeze the buttocks of a little girl who was sitting on his lap, and that he placed his hand on her upper thigh, "near her private parts" while he whispered in the child's ear. • Police discovered during their investigation that there were other complaints going back to at least 2004 in Marsicek's personnel file. Parents, a day care worker and others described "red flag behaviors" or excessive "playfulness" and "body games" with children.
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WI | WCS was formed in 2010 from the merger of St. Pius X and St. Bernard parish schools. It serves children preschool through eighth grade. In May or June 2012, both Archbishop Listecki and SDS Provincial Joseph Rodrigues were made aware that police in CA were investigating reports that Marsicek had sexually abused two young brothers at Divine Savior parish in Orangedale CA in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Neither Listecki nor Rodrigues notified the public of these allegations or did anything to restrict Marsicek's ministry until March 2013, when local news media reported on the recent incidents in Wauwatosa. In April 2013, Listecki spokesperson and Rodrigues both defended their decision not to remove Maricek ten months earlier. They did not want to disrupt the probe by CA law enforcement, the churchmen said. Marsicek was suspended from active ministry March 28, 2013, while police investigated the allegation of inappropriate contact with a Wauwatosa Catholic School student. Marsicek told police he was merely being affectionate with the children. |
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| March 2013 | February 2017 | Provincialate of the Society of the Divine Savior | Milwaukee | WI | After police in March 2013 banned Marsicek from St. Pius X and Mother of Good Counsel and their affiliated schools and day-care programs, church officials ordered him removed from ministry. He was sent to live under supervision at his order's provincialate. On February 22, 2017, Marsicek was criminally charged with three counts of felony sexual assault of a girl, beginning when she was six years old. The alleged abuses occurred at St. Pius X parish and school in Wauwatosa from 2007 to 2010. According to the Journal Sentinel's report of the criminal complaint, the now-15-year-old girl said that Marsicek "at one point laid on her and touched her breasts and at another reached under her jumper to 'pat' her vagina." The JS also reported that when "asked if he was aroused by boys and girls, Marsicek allegedly told detectives, 'Certainly I’m aroused (by) just the cuteness and beauty of them,' but not to the level that he would want to have sex with them." He admitted to having erections while dealing with children. |
Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1969-2011) • A Wauwatosa Priest Ordered to Stay Away from His Church and School, By Keller Russell, WTMJ, March 30, 2013
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