By Bill Kurtz
Catholic Herald
Bishop Fliss' responds on sexual abuse case
SUPERIOR -- Bishop Raphael M. Fliss, admitting that he had not dealt strongly enough with a priest who engaged in sexual misconduct, issued a pastoral letter last week apologizing for the diocese's handling of David Malsch.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported April 2 that Malsch was accused in 1984 of indecently touching a 14-year-old boy in a Superior rectory, and propositioning him. According to the newspaper, court records showed previous allegations, including a complaint that Malsch molested two boys in a rectory in the early 1980s.
Fliss testified in a deposition two years ago that he never reported the incident to police or to county social workers. The bishop ordered Malsch removed as pastor of St. Patrick Parish, and sent him to a Minnesota treatment facility.
Malsch, now 63, was then assigned to St. Joseph Parish, Rhinelander. He was transferred to St. Mary Parish, Tomahawk, in 1987. Malsch was suspended from the priesthood in 1991 after he was accused of child enticement. He was convicted in 1993, and is now in a Missouri treatment facility.
In 1984, Fliss was coadjutor bishop under Bishop George Hammes. "If I had known in 1984 and 1985 more about the issues of sexual abuse of children as we have all come to know, I would not have allowed David Malsch to function as a priest," Fliss wrote. "I deeply regret and am truly sorry that I failed to pursue a thorough investigation of the 1984 incident prior to 1991. It was clear in 1991 that I failed to conduct as thorough an investigation as the situation warranted."
The Journal Sentinel reported that the diocese ordered Malsch, who was ordained in 1967, into an alcohol treatment program in 1974, when he was assistant pastor at St. Joseph, Rhinelander. The newspaper reported that a St. Patrick trustee saw Malsch intoxicated on several occasions, and he was sent for alcohol treatment in 1983.
"At the time of the 1984 incident, it appeared that the sexual misconduct of David Malsch was directly related to his alcoholism," Fliss wrote. "I had the misguided opinion that treating the alcoholism would solve the problem.
"I ask your forgiveness, understanding and prayers for my error," the bishop wrote, stressing that "I assure you that under our current policies no repetition of that error has taken place, nor will it in the future."
The bishop's letter was to be read at weekend Masses or distributed in bulletins at all 114 parishes in the diocese.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2002