4-30-21 wisconsin ag says clergy sex abuse probe aims to bring clarity and transparency

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul says an investigation into clergy sexual abuse is an opportunity to get full clarity and transparency about what happened and make potential suggestions for improvement.   Kaul says he hopes Wisconsin’s five Catholic dioceses and religious orders will look at the probe as an opportunity to work together to support surviviors of sexual assault.  Kaul says he also hopes through the probe of preventing clergy sexual abuse cases from happening in the future.  Kaul says it’s his hope that the five dioceses and other religious orders will cooperate with the Department of Justice as it moves forward with the investigation. “We want to ensure that survivors have access to victim’s services so that if they want to have somebody they can speak to confidentially they have access to those services,”  Kaul told AM 1170s Between the Lines program.   “We continue to see the impact on survivors from abuse they suffered,  in some cases a long time ago, so providing services is critical.”   Kaul says it’s the first statewide investigation of it’s kind in Wisconsin.  He says the quicker the dioceses and religious orders produce documents the faster the investigation will go.