DULUTH, Minn. — Incidents of child sex abuse by priests often occurred on overnight trips, according to documents released by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Of 42 priest files reviewed by The Duluth News Tribune, 22 contain references to molestation on camping trips, a cross-state bicycle ride and at least one Caribbean cruise, the newspaper reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1aCqIFN ).
The incidents described weren't limited to southeastern Wisconsin. They occurred from Chicago to California to the Caribbean, as well as northern Wisconsin, the newspaper found.
Milwaukee Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said it's difficult to determine patterns from the voluminous records that were released Monday, such as any propensity by priests to molest children while traveling.
"A lot of what you saw (in the files) happened years ago," she said. "For those trips and those outings, today we have policies in place since the early 2000s to prevent that. While youth mission trips and outings can go on, it's not a one-on-one situation. There are background checks."
The geographic details in the files aren't always specific. Many incidents are noted vaguely as occurring "up north" — a generalization that the newspaper said sometimes refers to suburban Milwaukee, sometimes Wisconsin's northern counties, but is more often left unspecified.
"When (name redacted) was in 7th grade, (redacted) felt uneasy about the amount of time (he) spent alone with Fr. Jablonowski, including at his private quarters and place up north," reads the file on the Rev. James Jablonowski.
According to another file: "(Name redacted) states that when he was in (redacted) grade, 1979, Father James Beck took him on a camping trip near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. He states that Beck molested him on this camping trip."