Wauwatosa Priest Faces Child Abuse Investigation in California

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 16, 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/203266931.html

The Wauwatosa Catholic priest suspended from ministry over inappropriate contact with a child is the subject of a similar investigation in California, a spokesman for the Sacramento diocese said Tuesday.

Father Robert Marsicek, 71, was removed from ministry at Pius X Catholic Church in Wauwatosa, Wauwatosa Catholic School and Mother of Good Counsel parish and school in Milwaukee, on March 28, after a teacher reported what she considered inappropriate contact with a child.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department has been investigating an allegation, reported last year, that Marsicek molested two boys while serving at Divine Savior Parish there in the 1990s, said diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery.

The Milwaukee County district attorney's office declined to charge Marsicek, saying it could not prove the elements of a crime.

Marsicek's Milwaukee-based religious order, the Society of the Divine Savior, did not return telephone calls and emails seeking comment.

Jerry Topczewski of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which grants religious order priests the faculties needed to work in ministry locally, said he was checking with Chancellor Barbara Anne Cusack to determine what the archdiocese knew about Marsicek and when. He said religious orders must certify every five years that a particular priest is suitable for ministry, and that the archdiocese had such a letter on file for Marsicek.