Yesterday, I wrote about how Johnson testified before the Wisconsin State Senate to kill a bill that would have lengthened the statute of limitations in sex abuse cases involving children.
Amazingly, Johnson not only opposed extending the limitations, but also argued that organizations, (such as the Green Bay Diocese where he served on the Finance Council), shouldn't be sued at all, saying that only pedophiles themselves should be held accountable and organizations that reassign, instead of arresting, employees they know to be pedophiles shouldn't be held accountable because they might be "...severely damaged, possibly destroyed...",
Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that while Johnson was testifying, the Green Bay Diocese was attempting to kill a law suit against them, arguing that the victims had exhausted the time limits of the statute of limitations: (relevent part in bold)
The Nevada Supreme Court has declined to dismiss a sexual abuse lawsuit involving the Diocese of Green Bay and a now-defrocked priest who is in prison for assaulting two Wisconsin brothers, paving the way for the case to move forward.
The 2008 lawsuit alleges the man was abused by Father John Patrick Feeney after Feeney moved from the Green Bay Diocese to Las Vegas in the 1980s, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
The diocese had asked that the suit be dismissed because the limitations had expired. The diocese had no comment on the ruling.
Feeney, 83, was barred from active ministry in 1986 and laicized, or defrocked, in 2005, according to the Green Bay Diocese. However, attorneys for the victims have said he continued to work as a priest in Las Vegas. Feeney was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2004 for molesting two Wisconsin brothers in the 1970s, and is scheduled to be released in November 2011, according to the state Department of Corrections.
When Johnson testified before the Wisconsin Senate and argued that the diocese shouldn't be sued for the actions of a priest-- he was not talking in hypotheticals: he was talking about John Patrick Feeney.
Who is John Patrick Feeney?
According to court documents put online by the Green Bay Press Gazette:
John Patrick Feeney ("Feeney") was a Roman Catholic priest ordained and remaining under the employ and control of defendants St. Nicholas and the Diocese of Green Bay. From approximately June of 1976 through January of 1979, Feeney was under the employ and control of defendant Diocese of Green Bay and was working as a priest with an assignment at St. Nicholas Parish in Freedom, Outagamie County, Wisconsin.
John Patrick Feeney was convicted in 2003 for sexually assaulting two adolescent brothers during the time he was a priest with the Green Bay Diocese. A special report in the Appleton Post Crescent, published in May 2002, detailed how "Feeney was moved from parish to parish 14 times in 14 years, commonly after allegations of sexual misconduct, during his stint in the Green Bay Diocese. In all, Feeney served at 18 parishes in the diocese between his June 1952 ordination and before moving to California in 1983."
Survivors Network of those Abused Priests (SNAP) says Auxillory Bishop Robert Morneau was the diocese official responsible for reassigning instead or arresting Feeney:
"Bishop Morneau who was involved in cases of cover up in the past, that's one of our concerns," Isley said. "What's happening with him? He's in the documents - Feeney documents, what's going on?"
Here's the kicker: Morneau, is still around at the Green Bay Diocese, still is the point man for sex abuse cases, and heads the Finance Council, which Johnson sat on and represented when he testified before the Wisconsin State Senate!
As I mentioned yesterday, unfortunately Morneau isn't the only one: Green Bay Diocese is plagued with leadership that has reassigned instead of arrested pedophile priests-- most notably Bishop Robert Banks, who became a national figure during the Boston diocese abuse scandal.
The media is yet to report on this angle-- please help me get the word out!