PLEASE CALL ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH KAUL AT 608-266-1221 and tell him you would like him to investigate clergy abuse allegations in Green Bay and De Pere Wi.

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We encourage all of conscience to join us in our fight on behalf of all survivors of abuse and our people who suffered. Please contact Attorney General Josh Kaul and urge him to take this necessary step by opening an investigation into the clergy abuse allegations in
Green Bay and De Pere, Wi.

Sponsored in conjunction with www.snapnetwork.org
Wisconsin Department of Justice
P.O. Box 7857
Madison, WI 53707-7857

**Phone:** (608) 266-1221
**Fax:** (608) 267-2779

Website

June 5, 2020

Josh Kaul, Attorney General

Michelle Viste Wisconsin Department of Justice Director,

Office of Crimes Victims Services
114 East, State Capitol
P.O. Box 7857
17 West Main Street, 8th Floor
Madison, Wisconsin 53707

Madison, Wisconsin 53703

RE: The death of Nathan Lindstrom, survivor of clergy sexual abuse

Dear Attorney General Kaul & Director Viste,

We are writing to you as the family of Nathan Lindstrom. On behalf of Nate we are requesting a meeting with you to urge you to take decisive steps to prevent another injustice and tragedy like his. Nate was a victim of sexual assault as a minor by a Green Bay Priest of the Norbertine Religious Order. On March 9, Nate took his own life. He was 46 years old. He left behind a beautiful and loving family, including his wife and three young children. We believe this act was the direct result not only of the abuse he suffered as a child but with how his pleas for justice and help were repeatedly ignored and mishandled by the Norbertines and the Green Bay Diocese. As you are aware, Wisconsin law provides no access to civil courts where Nate and his fellow clergy abuse survivors can exercise their rights to bring their cases for restitution and institutional accountability. This included his right, as a victim, to the evidence about the priest who assaulted him and what church officials knew and did about his abuser. Incredibly, Nate had no option left for justice but to return to same individuals who had been historically involved in the cover up of these crimes and the protection of abusive priests. As a family, we joined with Nate in these efforts only to be met time and again with delay, misinformation, obstruction and secrecy. Norbertine officials are accountable to virtually no one under Wisconsin law, which allows them to continue to operate as if outside the law. This protects the wrong individuals – not victims or children but abusive clergy, bishops and religious order provincials. Church officials have been allowed for years in Wisconsin to investigate themselves, shield abusers, and mistreat and ignore victims seeking justice and healing. This is wrong and it must change. We believe you can help to change it. Nathan struggled his entire life with the horrific consequences of the crimes that were committed against him as a teenager. His treatment by Norbertine officials in Wisconsin, especially during the months before he ended his life, significantly precipitated the depression, despair and hopelessness that led to his death. Sadly, Nathan's story is not unique among the many survivors of clerical sexual abuse across our country. Too many survivors are suffering like Nate, despite their heroic efforts to overcome the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, and even with the support and love of their family, friends and fellow survivors. Without justice and real reform this will continue to be the appalling result. Survivors and their families have been urging you for over a year to open a statewide investigation of clergy abuse and cover up in Wisconsin, as is being done in nearly two dozen states around the U.S. Even in these difficult times, investigations are preceding because of the urgency and significance of these criminal acts and the need for institutional accountability for abuse within faith based organizations and institutions. Such an investigation is needed in Wisconsin, which has a long and documented history of abuse and institutional cover up. We are asking you on behalf of Nate to use the authority granted to you by the power of your office as Wisconsin’s chief law enforcement official to immediately open an investigation of all Wisconsin dioceses and religious orders, beginning with a review of the thousands of pages of church abuse documents, which have never been seen by any law enforcement officials in our state. We are also asking you to take a visible, active and public stance supporting two important pieces of legislation: the Wisconsin’s Child Victims Act and the Wisconsin Clergy Reporting Law. The Child Victims Act would open the civil statute on child sex abuse to victims like Nate and end the unwarranted immunity given to religious officials and organizations that harbor and protect child sex offender clergy, ministers and teachers. The Clergy Reporting law would finally require all clergy to be mandatory reporters of child abuse, which is the law for almost 30 other professions working with children and families in the State of Wisconsin. Nate was a precious and irreplaceable being. He was a kind, gentle soul. He was bright, gifted and extraordinarily generous. He loved his family and his children dearly. When he was a boy his faith meant everything to him. He and we never could have imagined that his faith and his innocence would be taken from him by the church in which he was raised, would abandon him and cause a lifetime of pain. Although Nate never gave up on his belief in justice, he despaired that there would ever be justice for himself and his fellow survivors in Wisconsin. It is in the name of Nate's love for justice, a justice that was denied him, that we are asking you to finally address the injustice that took him from us.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN
LYRICS: BOB DYLAN

Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

THANK YOU TO THE ANONYMOUS DONORS WHO HAVE PLACED THESE ADS ON BILLBOARDS ALL THROUGHOUT WISCONSIN. WE APPRECIATE THE GENEROUS DONATION AND SUPPORT. GOD BLESS YOU. — THANK YOU TO THE ANONYMOUS DONORS WHO HAVE PLACED THESE ADS ON
BILLBOARDS ALL THROUGHOUT WISCONSIN. WE APPRECIATE THE GENEROUS DONATION AND SUPPORT.
GOD BLESS YOU.

PLEASE CALL ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH KAUL AT 608-266-1221 and tell him you would like him to investigate clergy abuse allegations in Green Bay and De Pere Wi

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Sex abuse claims, secret payments, then a suicide. He battled memories of his past – and the priests at the center of it.Nate Lindstrom spent his life battling the memories of his past – and the Wisconsin priests at the center of it.Haley … — Sex abuse claims, secret payments, then a suicide. He battled memories of his past – and the priests at the center of it.
Nate Lindstrom spent his life battling the memories of his past – and the Wisconsin priests at the center of it.
**Haley BeMiller, Green Bay Press-Gazette**
Updated 10:41 a.m. CST Dec. 8, 2020

CLICK HERE TO READ THE USA TODAY STORY

Get Political

Please contact
Senator Dave Hansen
Let him know that you want to help overturn the laws that protect the church.

Senator Dave Hansen
Madison Room # 323
State Capitol PO Box 7882 Madison WI 53707

Phone # 608-266-5670

Email

Get Political

Please contact
Senator Andre Jacque
Let him know that you want to help overturn the laws that protect the church.

Andre Jacque
(920) 819-8066
Jacque for Senate
1615 Lost Dauphin Rd
De Pere, WI 54115

Email

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them to vote to end laws that protect clergy,
perpetrators and institutions.

Please reach
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on the list above and below.

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contact us.

Please read this article

Lawmakers push bills to end statute of limitations on lawsuits for childhood sex assaults, close loophole for clergy to report abuse

· Katelyn Ferral | The Capital Times

· Aug 7, 2019

“It is time that clergy become mandatory reporters of sexual assault. No exceptions, no excuses,” Rep. Chris Taylor said during a press conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday.MICHELLE STOCKER — *“It is time that clergy become mandatory reporters of sexual assault. No exceptions, no excuses,” Rep. Chris Taylor said during a press conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday.*
*MICHELLE STOCKER*

Three Democratic state lawmakers in Wisconsin want to close a loophole in state law that precludes clergy from reporting sexual abuse under some circumstances. They are also calling for changes to the state’s statute of limitations for civil cases involving childhood sexual assault.

Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Middleton, filed the two bills Wednesday. They announced the proposals with support from sex abuse survivor groups during a press conference at the state Capitol.

“Both have a simple goal: bring justice to survivors of sexual assault,” Sen. Lena Taylor said. “We know that people need time to come forward, time to process that trauma of what has happened to them.”

The first bill, known as the Child Victims Act, has been filed before and has failed to pass the Legislature at least four times. Other states, including Illinois, have passed their own versions in recent years. The bill would abolish time limits for when childhood sexual assault victims can bring civil suits against alleged perpetrators or institutions. Current law gives victims until they are 35 years old to bring forward cases of childhood sexual assault.

———

“Both (bills) have a simple goal: bring justice to survivors of sexual assault,” Sen. Lena Taylor said. “We know that people need time to come forward, time to process that trauma of what has happened to them.”MICHELLE STOCKER — “Both (bills) have a simple goal: bring justice to survivors of sexual assault,” Sen. Lena Taylor said. “We know that people need time to come forward, time to process that trauma of what has happened to them.”
*MICHELLE STOCKER*

The second bill, known as the Clergy Mandatory Reporter Act, is being filed for the first time. That bill would eliminate a current provision in state law that allows clergy to not report allegations of child sexual abuse if the information is relayed to them in private communications. That provision is enshrined in a 2003 law supported by the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and Wisconsin Family Action. Childhood sex abuse survivor groups say the law is a significant loophole, tantamount to no reporting requirement at all.

“It is time that clergy become mandatory reporters of sexual assault. No exceptions, no excuses,” Rep. Chris Taylor said, noting that several other states led by both Democrats and Republicans, including Texas, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, have passed similar bills.

But church groups say that the reporting language in current law is strong enough and necessary to protect the pastoral rights of clergy and the privacy of congregants. Any reporting requirement should accommodate distinct pastoral circumstances under which sexual assault could be disclosed, including a hospital, battlefield, emergency situations and "other times when people of faith are called to bear witness to a spiritual survivor," the groups wrote in a joint letter to Rep. Chris Taylor last month.

Several survivors of childhood sexual abuse spoke in support of the bills Wednesday, including Debbie McNulty. She is featured in a Cap Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual abuse at Calvary Gospel Church, a United Pente… — *Several survivors of childhood sexual abuse spoke in support of the bills Wednesday, including Debbie McNulty. She is featured in a* ***Cap Times investigation*** *detailing allegations of sexual abuse at Calvary Gospel Church, a United Pentecostal Church International congregation on the east side of Madison.*
*MICHELLE STOCKER*

___

Several survivors of childhood sexual abuse spoke in support of the bills Wednesday, including Debbie McNulty and Rebecca Martin Byrd, both of whom are featured in a Cap Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual abuse at Calvary Gospel Church, a United Pentecostal Church International congregation on the east side of Madison.

Byrd, who says she was raped when she was 14, said it has taken her decades to process what happened to her and be ready to report it. She is now 43, and making her case would be outside the current statute of limitations. Even though she says she reported the abuse at the time, it was dismissed. This is why the law needs to change and all clergy need to be mandatory reporters, she said.

“We cannot expect our children, who are the most vulnerable and weakest part of society, to be able to do what many adults cannot do,” said Rebecca Martin Byrd, a survivor of child sexual abuse. “Expanding the mandatory reporting law only serve… — “We cannot expect our children, who are the most vulnerable and weakest part of society, to be able to do what many adults cannot do,” said Rebecca Martin Byrd, a survivor of child sexual abuse. “Expanding the mandatory reporting law only serves to add protection to our children. There is no reason not to expand the law.”
*MICHELLE STOCKER*

___

“We cannot expect our children, who are the most vulnerable and weakest part of society, to be able to do what many adults cannot do,” she said. “Expanding the mandatory reporting law only serves to add protection to our children. There is no reason not to expand the law.”

Other survivor and advocacy groups, including Peter Isely who leads the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, in Wisconsin, and Ian Henderson, of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the National Association of Social Workers in Wisconsin, also support the bills.

Uniform mandatory reporting for clergy is needed to protect the religious liberty of the child, Isely said of the Clergy Mandatory Reporting Act. It is about children being free to develop and cultivate their own relationship with God and conception of the divine without threat of sexual abuse or harassment.

“They have the absolute right to form their thinking … and feelings about God,” Isely said. “It upholds the religious liberty of every child in our state.”

PLEASE EMAIL AND CALL THESE POLITICIANS

LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU WANT
THEM TO CHANGE THE LAWS
THAT PROTECT THE CLERGY

<< THANK YOU >>

———————————————————

Bernier, Kathleen

(R - Chippewa Falls)
District 23

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Sex abuse claims, secret payments, then a suicide. He battled memories of his past – and the priests at the center of it.

Nate Lindstrom spent his life battling the memories of his past – and the Wisconsin priests at the center of it.

Get Political

Get Political

GET POLITICAL

Let these politicians know that we need them to vote to end laws that protect clergy, perpetrators and institutions.

Lawmakers push bills to end statute of limitations on lawsuits for childhood sex assaults, close loophole for clergy to report abuse

Let these politicians know that we need
them to vote to end laws that protect clergy,
perpetrators and institutions.