Green Bay Bishop Leaves Ministry For Failing To Report Abuse

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has approved a request by retired auxiliary Bishop Robert Morneau to completely withdraw from the public ministry for failing to report priest abuse nearly four decades ago.

WLUK-TV reported that in a letter to Bishop David Ricken published in the diocesan newspaper The Compass, Morneau, 80, said he failed to report to local authorities an incident of abuse of a minor by a priest in 1979 and that the priest committed additional abuse several years later. The former priest, David Booyea, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1985 for sexually assaulting a child.

Ricken said Friday that Morneau made the decision to withdraw from public ministry because he now feels he didn’t do enough after the 1979 incident. He reiterated that Morneau never abused anyone, but feels he should have done more.

“This became a little more clear when the revelations came out at Pennsylvania that some bishops had done similar things, they are not exactly the same things,” Ricken said. “And they have removed their names from public buildings and Catholic buildings.”

On Aug. 14, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a grand jury report on rampant sex abuse within the state’s Catholic Church. The report, published in The Washington Post, details 70 years of misconduct.

The Rev. Robert Wild, one of Marquette University’s most well-known and celebrated former presidents, asked the university earlier this month to remove his name from the university’s new residence hall. Wild made the request after acknowledging for the first time that he mishandled sexual abuse allegations against members of his Jesuit order in Chicago decades ago.

The name has been stripped from the residence hall, which opened this fall. It was to be named the Robert A. Wild S.J. Commons, but is now named The Commons.

Ricken said Morneau will no longer hold Masses, administer the sacraments and will not preach or hold religious retreats.

“Sometimes what gets lost is the victims,” Ricken said in regards to coverage of situations of abuse. He added that abuse of a child is always “horrendous” but when it is done by a member of the clergy, “it really hurts their relationship with God, their relationship with family.”

Ricken said there were no mandatory reporting requirements at the time of the 1979 abuse.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 1:08 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21 with quotes from Bishop David Ricken.