As a member of the finance council for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay
until he resigned to run for Senate this year, Ron Johnson served alongside a
bishop named Robert Morneau who, as a Church leader, had been made aware over
two decades ago of the abusive tendencies of Rev. John Feeney.
Rev. Feeney was convicted in 2003, before Johnson joined the council, for
sexually assaulting two brothers in the late 1970s. But according to documents
obtained by the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the Church
sought to cover up his crimes, which one reverend called "sexually very
inappropriate."
Seven years later,
Johnson
testified before the Wisconsin State Senate
against legislation to
eliminate the statute of limitations for such crimes, making it easier for
victims of sexual abuse to seek damages from the Church or any other culpable
institution.
The testimony first arose in the context of the race
in a June article
in the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, and has been dogging Johnson more or less ever
since. His connection to Morneau raises questions about how familiar Johnson
(who is not a Catholic) was with the diocese's hidden scandals. Those questions
couldn't come at a worse time for the GOP hopeful, who leads Sen. Russ Feingold
(D-WI) in the polls ahead of the November election.
TPM contacted numerous attorneys, advocates, and other members of the finance
council of the Diocese of Green Bay to explain the finance council's role at the
church, and the information it was privy to with respect to sexually abusive
clergy. What we learned suggests that it's very difficult to separate Johnson's
role as finance committee member from his role as legislative witness seeking to
protect the Church from future lawsuits, when he told the panel, "I urge you to
defeat this legislation."
Johnson insisted at the time that he testified as an active member of the
business and non-profit community -- not specifically, and most pressingly, as a
representative of the Catholic Church. But the road he took to testifying at the
Madison statehouse in January of this year belies that contention.
Deacon Tim Reilly, Director of Administration for the Diocese of Green Bay
told TPM that the Church played a significant role in getting Johnson to the
state capital. According to Reilly, the Church didn't support the legislation
and wanted to raise public awareness of its objections. So the diocese arranged
for a meeting with Randy Hopper, the state senator in the Oshkosh area who sits
on the panel that was deciding whether this legislation would go to the floor
for a vote. Some 20 people met at St. Rafael's Parish in Oshkosh, several of
whom spoke -- including Johnson. His arguments were among the most articulate
and persuasive to the group, so Hopper asked him to go to Madison and testify --
the sort of not-quite-lobbying that happens in Washington and in state capitals
around the country all the time.
Reilly reiterated to TPM that Johnson was not speaking specifically on behalf
of the church. "He was speaking on his own behalf, as a concerned citizen, that
this would adversely affect the Catholic School System and the Boys and Girls
Club and the YMCA and other non-profits without government protection."
That beggars belief, according to experts and clergymen.
"He can't be testifying just as a concerned citizen," says Father Tom Doyle,
a priest who presciently warned the Catholic Church about the looming sex abuse
scandal years ago. "If he was a member of the finance council of the diocese,
the senator picked him out not because he was concerned about the Boys and Girls
Club.... I don't know of any instance where a layperson, on his own, without any
connection with the Church administration has come forward to
testify."
Doyle admonished that, though many finance councils around the
country are intimately familiar with diocesan secrets (both good and bad), they
are in some instances left in the dark by their bishops. He has no direct
knowledge of what the finance council knew in Johnson's case.
After learning of Johnson's testimony in news reports a former Johnson
supporter named Todd Merryfield -- one of Feeney's victims -- appeared on MSNBC
to announce that he'd renounced his support for the Tea Party-backed candidate.
For Merryfield and others who advocate on behalf of abuse victims,
legislation extending the statute of limitations in child abuse cases was and
remains a key legislative goal, and Johnson's successful attempt to kill it is a
nearly unpardonable sin. But in addition to seeking penance from Johnson, and
calling on him to press the Church to release information about priest abuse,
they want to know what he knew when he testified in January.
"We don't know exactly what he knew," Merryfield told TPM in a phone
interview. "It just seemed a little strange that he was in a position of
knowledge being on the finance council, having to sign the checks to everyone
being paid."
The issue has taken on greater salience as Johnson's lead over Feingold has
grown. But for victims, the question of whether Johnson was acting as a
dispassionate citizen and member of the business community, or as an agent of
the Church, is the most crucial.
"These pedophiles that they have hidden away, they pay their room and board,
living costs," Merryfield said, speculating that Johnson "has to know who they
are because he has to write the checks to somebody."
According to Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest Director, "It's something of a
mystery what this finance council does," though, he says, it's one of the most
important positions in the diocese.
Jim Stang, an attorney for official committees of abuse survivors in six
Catholic affiliated bankruptcy cases, told TPM that these finance committees --
mandated at every diocese in the country -- are well-positioned to know about
the skeletons in the Church's closets. When a case is settled, for instance, it
would be in the financial interest of the Church, and therefore the council, to
know of any other potential victims, and therefore lawsuits.
"It would certainly be in the area of finance committee's appropriate inquiry
to ask," Stang said.
Ultimately, though, Stang said it should come as no surprise that Johnson's
testimony so closely mirrored the Church's position.
"I think you'd have to live in some kind of plastic bubble to not make the
association between statute of limitations reform and the financial impact on
the diocese," Stang said. "It's certainly the argument the Church has been
making for years."
According to the 2004 John Jay Report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Green Bay received 59 allegations of sexual
abuse by 35 diocesan priests during the 52 year period of the inquiry,
1950-2002.
Furthermore, the diocese is currently involved in two lawsuits, which,
according to Reilly, is just the sort of potential liability the Church would
bring to the attention of the council. "I also would say we have two lawsuits
going on and depending on how they're settled, depending on whether the judge
rules in our favor and how the jury rules, this is the potential financial risk
that might be out there in the future," Reilly said. "In the case of the two
litigations that we're involved in right now, I feel very strongly that we are
on the correct side of the truth, but I said to the council, I need to make
everybody aware that there are two lawsuits coming on so it's not a surprise.
Nobody likes surprises."
In the past several days, Johnson has claimed in statements to reporters in
Wisconsin that he never argued the legislation should fail -- only that he
cautioned against some of its provisions. "I sought to warn legislators of those
consequences in order to correct legislative language so that any bills that
passed would punish the perpetrators," he insisted. In fact he urged state
senators to vote down the legislation, claiming that, among other things, it
would benefit trial attorneys and do more harm than good to children left in the
lurch when organizations get sued and go under.
Now, under attack, he is demanding full transparency from the Diocese of
Green Bay.
"I call upon the Green Bay Diocese to provide the utmost transparency in
order to answer any lingering questions or doubt among victims of child abuse
and those who seek to prevent child abuse in the future," Johnson said.
The Johnson campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
