Four down, three to go for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. There are seven Catholic dioceses in her state. Now, Nessel has finished investigating clergy sex crimes and cover-ups in five of them. (Still remaining: Grand Rapids, Detroit and Saginaw.) Since we at Horowitz Law are based in Florida, one name jumped out at us. In the just-released report on the Lansing Diocese, one name jumped out at us (probably since we at Horowitz Law are based in Florida):
Bishop Joseph Keith Symons. Symons ran the Palm Beach Diocese for almost a decade (1990-1998). Before that, he worked in three other Florida dioceses: Pensacola, St. Augustine, and St. Petersburg. After admitting to having sexually abused five boys, Symons resigned from his post and was last known to be living in Alma, Michigan. Symons is one of two bishops cited in the report, along with Bishop James Steven Sullivan, a Lansing auxiliary bishop who was later promoted to head the Fargo, North Dakota Diocese. He’s accused of fondling a boy after the boy disclosed to him that a religious brother had sexually abused him.
In an all-too-typical deception, when Bishop Sullivan resigned in 2002, church officials claimed it was because of Alzheimer’s. But just three months later, he was publicly accused of fondling a boy back in Michigan. But the surprising part of the new report on the Lansing Diocese’s scandal is NOT that it had two abusive bishops. (The same can be said of other dioceses, including Los Angeles and New York City. In fact, the Brooklyn Diocese had five bishops who were accused of abuse: Denning, Dimarzio, Gutierrez, Sansaricq, and Joseph Sullivan.) What really stands out in the Lansing report is the sheer number of child molesting clerics who were ‘under the radar’ until Nessel held a news conference this week and revealed her report.
Their names:
James Bettendorf, Andrew Blasko, Thomas W. Butler, Bennett Constantine, Edmond L. Ertzbishchoff, James Fitzgerald, Philip P. Gallagher, Robert R. Gerl, David W. Harvey, Franklin D. Hay, Mark Joseph Inglot, Patrick Isicheri, William Joseph Koenigsknecht, Michael W. Kuchar, Ronald J. Loeher, Steven F. Makranyi, Francis T. Martin, Jeffrey O. Njus, Robert Onofrey, William Thomas, Stephen William Thompson, Francis B. Wahowiak and John Wayne Wehrle.
Until just days ago, virtually no one knew that anyone had ever reported child sex crimes by these men. Remember, this is a relatively small diocese. (In terms of Catholic population, it’s the 79th largest in the US.) One of them (Deacon Corder) is still in active ministry, and two others (Fr. Gerl and Fr. Inglot) are listed as “without faculties” (meaning they’re still priests but temporarily do not have a bishop’s permission to administer the sacraments or work in public as a priest). Four deacons—John F. “Jack” Daunt, Howard Lake, Richard Lewis Miller, and Corder—and one brother, Donald Kuchenmeister, are also accused.
And please remember: these are just the clerics who are “newly outed,” who were essentially ‘under the radar’ until Nessel issued her report. There are dozens of other Lansing area predators who were already suspended, defrocked, criminally charged, civilly sued, or otherwise publicly accused of hurting kids. It’s alarming that nearly 25 years after the huge rush of clergy abuse stories began in Boston, so much still remains hidden. Like similar investigative reports into abuses and cover-ups by Catholic officials, the new Lansing document contains important details, many of which have apparently not been reported in the mainstream media. Take the case of Fr. Robert Gerl, for instance. Two top Michigan church officials have acknowledged publicly that he was arrested on charges of ‘solicitation’ and accused of abusing an 18-year-old. (On the ‘solicitation’ matter, he pled to a lesser charge of ‘disorderly conduct.’)
But Nessel’s report also reveals that Fr. Gerl also allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old. It says that while he spent his early life and seminary education in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Catholic officials there refused to ordain him. So he was ordained in the Lansing Diocese. Six weeks later, he was again arrested for ‘solicitation.’ So what’s Fr. Gerl up to now? It’s not clear. He apparently has no formal assignment. But he remains a priest. Fr. Gerl also worked in the Louisville, Kentucky Archdiocese and the dioceses of Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.) For a broader look at Fr. Gerl’s abusive colleagues in the Lansing diocese, here’s the BishopAccountability.org list of accused Lansing clerics: And here’s a shorter and older ‘credibly accused’ clerics list (from 2020) by the official Lansing diocese itself. Nessel’s 345 report, containing a total of 56 names of alleged Lansing Diocese offenders, can be found here:
The report summarized the overall progress that’s been made by Nessel and her staff so far: “To date, eleven cases have been brought by the Department of Attorney General for all seven dioceses. Nine have been resolved with convictions.” That’s impressive. But at the same time, when one pauses to consider just how many kids were hurt and how many adults knew about or suspected these crimes but concealed or ignored them, it’s also staggering and sad. And let’s not forget that many (if not most) of those injured kids are now still struggling grown-ups, coping with and trying to overcome depression, addictions, eating disorders, anger issues, and the myriad other effects of severe childhood trauma and betrayal.
We at Horowitz Law sincerely hope every single one of these survivors finds the healing, justice, and closure they deserve. NOTE: Like predatory Catholic clerics elsewhere, abusers in the Lansing Diocese spent time in other states and dioceses, including Texas (Fr. Fitzgerald and Fr. Lee), Wisconsin (Fr. Wyszynski), Missouri (Fr. Slowey), Alaska (Fr. Crowley) and the Marquette and Detroit areas, for example).
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by religious authority figures and other clergy. If you need a lawyer because a member of a religious organization sexually abused you, contact us today at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. We can help.