GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Church whistleblowers supposedly have evidence the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is covering up the names of 69 people who should allegedly be on its public registry for sexually abusing minors.
The list was given to Brown County District Attorney David Lasee Thursday afternoon. It would more than double the names the diocese released three years ago.
Clergy abuse survivors and victim advocates Peter Isely and Sarah Pearson say the Diocese of Green Bay’s public list of 48 offending priests should have 69 more names on it.
“It’s not just priests,” said Pearson. “It includes school teachers. It includes nuns. It includes other people who had involvement in the catholic church.”
“We’d never know about this unless whistleblowers around the state, church whistleblowers around the state have been obtaining this, finding this, getting this,” said Isely.
District Attorney Lasee tells FOX 11 he remains committed to reviewing all evidence and taking necessary action toward offenders when allowed under statutes of limitations.
The document drop-off comes two days after the advocates were in Madison providing Attorney General Josh Kaul with other whistleblower information. They claim thousands of documents prove five Catholic diocese in Wisconsin covered up abuse.
Last April, Kaul announced an investigation into abusive clergy and coverup by dioceses.
“When you see that it’s been almost a year since this investigation has been open and there has been no visible effort to get this evidence…they could be, but thus far I have to say it’s a disappointment,” said Pearson.
After those documents were given to the attorney general, the Diocese of Green Bay issued a statement. In part it said, “being that this is part of an ongoing review, and since we are not aware of the content of these documents, we will reserve any further comment at this time.” The diocese also said it “remains dedicated to the protection of children and vulnerable adults.”
FOX 11 asked Isely and Pearson if the whistleblowers or documents indicated why the diocese didn’t look into or tried to coverup the allegations made against the 69 people.
“You know there is a lot of stuff, we haven’t seen it all,” said Isely. “We want to get it to the law enforcement. Yeah, I’m sure there is going to be evidence in there that summarizes why we have this plan, but what you’ve got is a list and some of that list has details with it like when it occurred and that type of stuff.”
As of October, Kaul said the state had received about 180 reports. 80% were abuse allegations. The rest were reports on how religious organizations responded to abuse claims.
Isely and Pearson are part of Nate’s Mission. Nate Lindstrom accused several priests of abusing him in the 1980s at the St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere. He took his own life in 2020.
