A Madison Catholic priest was stripped of his clerical duties after allegations of child pornography surfaced against the man in 2025.
The June 24 stripping of Andrew J. Showers’ clerical duties comes after Waupaca County prosecutorscharged the 38-year-old manwith felonies after they say he he attempted to meet with a 14-year-old girl to have sex with her, but it was actually a police officer. Prosecutors also charged him with possession of child pornography earlier this year.
Showers was also the subject of two other misconduct allegations following his 2025 arrest, one for inappropriate questioning during confession and another allegation of groping a woman.
The Diocese of Madison announced Pope Leo XIV made the decision to remove Showers of his duties after Showers requested the removal himself, according to the Diocese’s June 25 letter. That church process, known as laicization, means he is known longer a member of the church’s clergy.
“I ask for your continued prayers for all those affected and commend everyone involved, including Andrew, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,” said Donald Hying, Bishop of Madison, in a letter to diocese members. “May we find comfort in the Lord’s unfailing love and mercy, remembering that He remains with us in every trial, suffering, and sorrow.”
The charges came after Clintonville Police Department officers arrested Showers on Aug. 24, 2025 after he attempted to meet with an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Then, in March, prosecutors charged Showers with two additional felonies for possession of child pornography. Authorities said they found two pornographic images of girls on a messaging app on Showers’ phone.
The Diocese of Madison had previously announced Showers’s first arrest Aug. 25, 2025, and restricted him from ministry during the investigation. In that announcement, it erroneously said the church had not received any prior allegations of misconduct conduct against Showers.
However, two days later, the Diocese of Madison said Showers was the subject of a previous complaint in December 2021. The Journal Sentinel previously reported that complaint came from a parent who reported his son was asked about watching pornography and masturbating during confession at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Lodi, according to a police record.
The Lodi Police Department investigated the complaint and determined it was not criminal. The father also said he reported it to the church, who said Showers’ actions were within his role as a priest.
More allegations surfaced against Showers in Sept. 2025. A woman said she was groped by the man during a social event, where he introduced himself as a priest and gave her his business card.
Showers had been set to lead a small group trip to Rome and Siena at the time of the allegations, according to since-deleted social media posts.
Showers had the following assignments, according to the diocese:
Director of diocesan office of worship, 2024 to present.
Parochial vicar for a grouping known as Pastorate 22 or Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, which collectively includes two churches, St. Raphael and Good Shepherd, and one school, St. James, all in Madison, 2023 to present.
Priest in residence at All Saints in Berlin and Our Lady of the Lake in Green Lake, 2022 to 2023.
Provided Spanish Mass assistance at St. John the Baptist in Waunakee, 2022.
Pastor of St. Stephen in Clinton, 2020 to 2022.
Parochial vicar for St. Paul's Catholic Student Center, which serves UW-Madison students, 2018 to 2020.
Parochial vicar of St. Cecilia in Wisconsin Dells, summer of 2017.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.
MADISON - A former Northwoods priest convicted of sexually assaulting young boys in the 1980s has a parole hearing set for July.
According to a source familiar with the case, Thomas Ericksen will go before the parole board on July 22.
Ericksen is eligible for parole on Sept. 11, according to Wisconsin's inmate locator. His mandatory release date is set for Dec. 5, 2032.
He was formerly denied parole in 2022.
Ericksen, 75, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2019 on two charges of sexually assaulting boys while stationed at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Winter in the 1980s. He is also registered as a sex offender for life.
He was given 20 years on one charge and 10 years on the other. He was credited with 314 days of time served in jail since his arrest, both in Minnesota before he was extradited and in Wisconsin. He is currently being held in the Jackson Correctional Institution in Black River Falls.
At least 11 men claimed that the former priest abused them as children or teens in multiple counties across the Northwoods of Wisconsin, either by filing reports with police or speaking with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporters. The former priest was arrested in November 2018, nearly a decade after victims first began sharing their stories with Sawyer County investigators.
Parole consideration is given only for inmates who committed a crime before Dec. 31, 1999. That was before Wisconsin enacted what's known as a "truth in sentencing" law, which means inmates generally must serve the entire sentence given to them by the court, with some exceptions for early release.
Because Ericksen committed the crimes before that law passed, his prison term is up to the Parole Commission based on his behavior while incarcerated.
Generally, inmates serving indeterminate sentences must serve at least a quarter of their sentence and must be released after two-thirds of their sentence. Using that framework, Ericksen would be required to serve at least 7.5 years in prison and would be released after 20 years.
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MADISON - Four years after the launch of an investigation to look at the breadth of abuse by faith leaders in Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul is still collecting reports from the public.
Since its launch, the clergy and faith leader investigation has brought charges against several people, and resulted in hundreds of reports gathered from religious organizations across the state.
"We've taken a consistent approach throughout the initiative, which is to follow the information where it leads," Kaul said in an interview. "And what we are committed to doing is ensuring that any report and any information we put out is based on the facts."
But as the years stretch on, some have started to question why the investigation is taking so long, and when a final report will be released.
Here's what we know about the ongoing investigation.
What exactly is the investigation looking at?
The Department of Justice launched the inquiry to look at claims of sexual abuse by faith leaders of all denominations, with a particular interest in the Catholic Church.
Advocates pushed for Kaul to open the investigation after attorneys general in other states launched inquiries and revealed findings that some denominations of churches knew about sexual abuse by leaders in positions of power, but did not report them.
So far, many of the reports have related to Catholic priests, but there have also been reports from several other denominations.
How many reports has the DOJ received?
As of Sept. 29, the Department of Justice has received 326 reports about abuse.
Charges have been filed against several current or former clergy members or counselors. Instances of abuse have also been reported to a religious authority, and the abuser added to the list of credibly accused abusers.
In April of this year, former youth pastor James Lane, 53, pleaded guilty in Wood County to repeated sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years of extended supervision.
According to a release from the DOJ, the abuse occurred between September 2002 and December 2003, when Lane was driving the child home from Faith Reformed Church in Wisconsin Rapids.
Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal of the Catholic Church, was charged with one count of fourth-degree sexual assault for an incident that occurred in 1977. The former cardinal allegedly engaged in repeated sexual abuse of the victim over time, including once fondling the victim while staying as a guest at a Lake Geneva residence.
In addition, abuse by John Cullinan, a deceased Catholic priest who served in the La Crosse diocese, was reported for the first time. The DOJ worked with the diocese to add his name to its list of clergy with substantiated allegations of abuse.
Charles served as the pastor for the nondenominational church Neighbors to Nations in Princeton, Minn., at the time of the assaults, but routinely traveled to his Wisconsin cabin with parishioners. He is accused of assaulting the victim four times in five years, while the victim was between the ages of 3 and 7.
Nystrom was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse of a child, and sentenced to seven years of prison, followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
Two cases have also been handed over to Brown County investigators, but no charges have yet been filed there.
What's the role of the Catholic dioceses in the investigation?
So far, the Catholic dioceses of Wisconsin have declined to share information with the DOJ. But they did say when the investigation launched that if there was a specific allegation for a current, living member of the clergy, information would be shared with investigators.
In 2023, Kaul sought access to court documents sealed a decade ago as a part of a bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The bankruptcy was related to a $21 million settlement to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy.
A federal judge in October 2024 denied access to Kaul and his team of investigators, saying the DOJ failed to make a valid case for revisiting the bankruptcy decision and did not provide a sufficient plan for notifying clergy abuse victims of its request for the records.
For years, rumors have swirled about the bankruptcy filings including the names of additional abusive clergy members, but that claim has never been substantiated.
What's the status of the final report?
Kaul said in a Sept. 25 interview he did not know when the final report would be released.
When did Kaul launch the inquiry?
Kaul announced the start of his investigation in April 2021, surrounded by advocates and the loved ones of Nate Lindstrom, a man who took his life after being abused as a child by a priest.
What have critics of the investigation said?
Critics of the investigation have put pressure on Kaul to push for documents and information from the Catholic Church, and in particular, the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
Though Kaul has tried to access files from the Archdiocese, he has not been successful.
Critics also are worried about the length of time the inquiry has been ongoing with no report. Other states took considerably less time.
"We're committed to conducting a thorough comprehensive review, and our goal is not to put out a report on some particular date, but rather to put out a report we feel does justice to the work that's been done," Kaul said when asked about the criticism.
What happens when someone makes a report?
When a survivor or someone with knowledge of abuse makes a report to the hotline or online, they're put into contact with a victim services worker who can steer them to resources, if needed.
Then each claim is looked into by a team of people across different specialties, who decide if the claim can be forwarded to local authorities.
How can I report abuse or knowledge of abuse?
To file a report, call 877-222-2620 or use the online reporting tool at supportsurvivors.widoj.gov. Both options provide the ability to file an anonymous tip.
The department is still accepting reports and said survivors have control of what happens after their report is received.
"So far, the Catholic dioceses of Wisconsin have declined to share information with the DOJ." So, it's business as usual at the Catholic Church, where the Pope says one thing, but his minions do otherwise. Children are sex fodder for the Catholic Church. It was that way 60 years ago when a priest put his hands on me and it's that way today despite the Catholic Church's ongoing lies and deceit. A "religion" of swine. They've been diddling kids for over 2,000 years. Disgusting!
Andrew J. Showers, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Madison who is now charged with child sex crimes, faced a previous complaint about his conduct four years ago.
Prosecutors charged Showers Aug. 27 with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, attempted child enticement and attempted use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. The criminal complaint against Showers, 37, says he sent sexually explicit online messages and traveled to Waupaca County to meet someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl to have sex with her, unaware he was actually corresponding with a Clintonville police officer.
The Diocese of Madison said it learned of the arrest Aug. 25 and restricted Showers from ministry while the investigation is ongoing. The diocese initially said it had not previously received any allegations of misconduct connected to Showers, who was ordained in 2017.
But the diocese then acknowledged on Aug. 27 that Showers had been the subject of a previous complaint.
"I need to share with you that an ongoing review of diocesan files, email messages, and phone records revealed that a complaint about Fr. Showers was made to the diocese by a parent in December 2021," Madison Bishop Donald J. Hying wrote in a letter to members of the diocese. "The parent expressed concern about pastoral questions which were asked of a male middle-school child during the Sacrament of Confession."
A Lodi Police Department incident report shows a father reported Showers for "inappropriate questions the priest asked his son during confession" at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Lodi.
The father said that, during confession, Showers began to ask his son "about masturbation and if he was viewing pornography," and that "his son was very uncomfortable about this and reported it" immediately after leaving the church.
The father also told Lodi police that he had contacted the church and diocese officials, who "explained that many times the Priest will prompt persons during confession about sins that are natural for that age group, and they believed this is what Rev. Showers had done."
Lodi police determined "the incident did not seem to rise to the level of a criminal act but appeared to be more a question of appropriateness."
The incident report said that police would wait to see what the church investigation revealed before interviewing Showers.
Hying's letter noted that police determined "the incident did not rise to the level of a criminal act."
"I apologize that this parental complaint was not included in our initial communication," he wrote.
Hying later added, "I continue to ask for your prayers for everyone involved in this situation."
The Diocese of Madison said allegations of sexual misconduct always should be brought to law enforcement, and allegations involving priests, deacons or other church personnel should also be reported to the diocese's sexual misconduct question and reporting line, at 608-821-3162, regardless of when they are said to have occurred.
Showers had the following assignments, according to the diocese:
Director of diocesan office of worship, 2024 to present.
Parochial vicar for a grouping known as Pastorate 22 or Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, which collectively includes two churches, St. Raphael and Good Shepherd, and one school, St. James, all in Madison, 2023 to present.
Priest in residence at All Saints in Berlin and Our Lady of the Lake in Green Lake, 2022 to 2023.
Provided Spanish Mass assistance at St. John the Baptist in Waunakee, 2022.
Pastor of St. Stephen in Clinton, 2020 to 2022.
Parochial vicar for St. Paul's Catholic Student Center, which serves UW-Madison students, 2018 to 2020.
Parochial vicar of St. Cecilia in Wisconsin Dells, summer of 2017.
Every Sunday, before Heart of the Nation begins broadcasting Mass from Milwaukee's Sacred Heart Croatian Parish, a priest encourages viewers to show their support.
“The Heart of the Nation Mass is a viewer-supported ministry," says Fr. Mark Payne, as the organization's website and phone number appear onscreen. "Please consider an offering today to support the Mass on TV and online."
On its website, the ministry cites Acts 20:35, a Bible verse where Jesus says, "It is better than give to receive." The site tells supporters that the organization "depends on donations and the generosity of hundreds of volunteers."
Ways to give range from online donations to gifts of property. The donation form starts with a default suggestion of $25 and climbs up to $1,000.
But after viewer Mike Guillory, 79, viewed the nonprofit's IRS filings, he asked Public Investigator why Heart of Nation continues to ask for money.
According to its 2023 tax filing, the Milwaukee-based ministry received over $16.4 million in contributions and spent just $6.2 million. The rest was saved, growing the nonprofit's assets by $10 million.
Its total assets now amount to $39.5 million — enough to fund its current operations for more than six years.
"I have a distrust of what is actually going on," Guillory said. "What is actually happening to all the surplus money?"
Heart of the Nation's executive director, Bruno John, told Public Investigator that ongoing donations are necessary to sustain and expand the ministry.
The media ministry owned by Santa Fe Communications began broadcasting Mass on a single channel in 1984. Today, it's based in Milwaukee and airs across the country to people who are home-bound or incarcerated.
The ministry's conservative spending is meant to ensure Heart of the Nation stays afloat after having experienced financial troubles in the past, John said.
Accounting and ethics experts, however, say nonprofits should be transparent about their finances so donors have the full picture.
"It's not necessarily a red flag just to build up a reserve like that," said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University and expert in nonprofit finances. "The red lights come when there's a disconnect between the way the organization is raising funds and the way it's spending funds."
Public Investigator compared Heart of the Nation's financial records to three other major religious media ministries — New Evangelization Ministries, CatholicTV, and Shalom World. None stockpiled as much of their donation revenue as Heart of the Nation.
For example, while CatholicTV ended the year with $75 million in assets, it spent 66% of its revenue on programming and operations. In contrast, Heart of the Nation spent 38%, saving the rest.
Executive director says COVID, past financial troubles explain $40M reserve
John, the executive director, said the surplus of funds is a recent development due to the COVID-19, which prevented millions from attending in-person services. As a result, Heart of the Nation's viewership and donations increased.
"At the same time, we increased our outreach and expanded the reach of our TV Mass, growing our operating budget to $6.5 million to support these efforts," John said.
Expecting donations would decline once viewers could return to in-person services, John said the organization built a reserve. But John said that decline didn't happen.
"Fortunately, the people that have hung in there and continue to support us have allowed the support to remain steady for the last couple of years," he said.
According to John, the organization almost shut down in 1992 and 2017 after funding troubles, forcing it to broadcast Mass on fewer channels. That was "a painful experience" for viewers who had come to rely on the service, John said.
He added that Heart of the Nation is a "lean" organization without development staff or administrative assistants, so most of its spending goes toward programming.
The nonprofit's IRS filings confirm that most of its revenue goes to programming expenses, not staff. John is listed as the only paid employee in Heart of the Nation's IRS filings. His salary was $152,391 in 2023.
John said excess funds are "strategically set aside in a board-directed endowment," designed to protect the ministry from future downturns.
Ministry should disclose financial position and future plans, experts say
According to Mittendorf, there's nothing wrong with nonprofits spending frugally as long as they provide clarity on how and when the reserves will be used.
Heart of the Nation's fundraising appeals do not mention its strong financial position or its timeline for spending donations.
"Just perpetually accumulating the resources, even if the intent isn't bad, at some point, will backfire," Mittendorf said. "Because donors will say, 'I put my trust in you, and you just didn't spend the resources I gave.'"
John said Heart of the Nation plans to expand by creating a new prayer ministry department, evaluating additional outreach opportunities, and strengthening its organizational infrastructure.
"These planned expansions will naturally increase future operating costs," John said.
But John also said the organization doesn't set specific fundraising targets.
"It's not like we plan this out, like, 'Oh, OK, we have to raise this amount of money this year,'" he said. "We just put the message out there … and then see what happens."
That approach, Mittendorf said, may require greater oversight.
"When your budget gets in that multimillion-dollar size, you need additional layers of control just to make sure that you can provide assurances to the public," Mittendorf said.
Experts recommend getting involved before donating
Jonathan Boulos, an accounting professor at the University of Notre Dame who specializes in nonprofit financial management and law, said it's normal for donors to feel misled if fundraising messages don't match how money is spent.
"No one would bat an eye if their message was congruent with their budget, but it's the combination that creates a feeling of relative deprivation between (donors') expectations and reality," Boulos said.
For accounting purposes, nonprofits must list building costs or other capital projects as assets instead of expenses. That can sometimes make them look like they are stockpiling reserves, even if they are not, Boulos noted.
However, in this case, Heart of the Nation says its reserves are held in an endowment, not currently being spent on renovations or capital projects.
Sites like Charity Navigator can be helpful when deciding whether to support a nonprofit, Boulos said. Heart of the Nation has a 97% score from Charity Navigator based on its financial practices and accountability, earning the group the maximum four-star rating.
Still, Boulos's advice is this: Don't just rely on government filings. Instead, get involved with a nonprofit before donating by volunteering, joining a committee or asking questions.
"If the organization cannot or will not take your time and talents, you might have all of the information you need," Boulos said.
Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com.
The swine Catholics are money hungry beyond belief. The stiolen art and treasures in the Vatican total BILLIONS of dollars, yet the Catholic Church continues to plead poverty and extort more money from their poorest congregants. FUCK the Catholic Crime Church!
Since putting down roots in Milwaukee and especially since becoming a mother, I’ve felt a deeper urge to live in service of others, to build community, to find shared meaning
When I woke up on Easter Monday, I certainly did not expect that the first piece of news would be that Pope Francis died overnight.
I took it as a good sign that he was feeling well enough to bless thousands of people on Easter Sunday and had even managed to summon the strength (and patience) to meet with Vice President JD Vance after successfully dodging him just a day prior.
So when I read the news of his passing, I wasn’t expecting any kind of emotional reaction. I was raised Catholic, but it’s been decades since I’ve identified as such.
And yet, there it was. A subtle twinge of something.
Not grief, and not guilt (despite the aforementioned Catholic upbringing). More like reverence, maybe even reflection on losing a spiritual leader who, in many ways, represented both the best parts of what Christianity instilled in me, and stirred a recent, cautious curiosity I’ve had about finding my way back to church.
Sunday Mass was non-negotiable part of growing up
Like so many of my fellow Wisconsinites, Catholic school and Mass on Sunday (or sometimes Saturday evening) was a non-negotiable foundation of my childhood. I spent many services squirming in a pew, mentally checking off each part of the service like mile markers on a long road trip and always quietly asking my parents if we could leave after Communion (which usually was only granted if the Packers were playing).
I never really felt “God” in those pews. I felt bored.
By the time I was in high school, other members of the congregation might have assumed my piety since I was often reciting the First Reading or singing in the choir. But that wasn’t me taking religion seriously. That was me taking any chance I got to perform on a stage very seriously.
Eventually, my parents’ insistence on attending every Sunday softened — especially after the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. We became Christmas and Easter Catholics. Then, not even that. And with their detachment, any tether I had to the church disappeared altogether.
Because, as I got older, my issues with Catholicism became sharper and deeper — and more complex — than simply not “feeling anything.”
It was the hypocrisy. The performative rituals. The judgment. The sexual abuse. The inability to reconcile Catholic views with my personal politics. And simply the fact that the Vatican could sell just one piece of art and feed a staggering number of people in need and yet consistently makes the choice to not.
Catholicism that was preached not what I saw church practice
So much of what I’d been taught about Jesus at Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in the 1990s — his compassion, humility, radical love — felt completely absent from the Church I saw in practice as an adult.
Then in 2013, there was a new Pope who, within months of his selection, answered a reporter’s question about gay priests with, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Now that was a different clerical tone than any Catholic kid had ever heard before.
Over the next 12 years, Pope Francis consistently made headlines as the living embodiment of everything I hoped Christianity could stand for. He reminded me of the Jesus I learned about in religion class as a child — the one who fed the hungry, cared for the sick, sheltered the homeless, loved fiercely, and, yes, even befriended prostitutes (although in fairness, I learned that one after Catholic school).
Pope Francis hosted lunches on his birthday for people living in poverty. He personally washed the feet of prisoners, immigrants, Muslims and women. He openly criticized both the “new tyranny” of unfettered capitalism and the “idolatry of money."
He condemned the greed of wealthy nations for creating the conditions of climate disaster. He relentlessly used the most powerful pulpit on Earth to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. He insisted priests could bless same sex couples and made the decision to invite a group of trans women to the Vatican for pasta, meatballs and tiramisu.
Pope Francis embodied love, humility and fearless inclusion
Everything I have learned, read, and shared about Pope Francis in the days since his death paints the picture of a man whose actions embodied love, humility, and fearless inclusion. He dedicated his life to transforming the Catholic Church into an institution characterized by compassion and an ethos defined by "welcoming the stranger."
He reminded me not of why I left the Church, but of what I always wanted it to be — and what I might still be longing for.
Since putting down roots in Milwaukee and especially since becoming a mother, I’ve felt a deeper urge to live in service of others, to build community, to find shared meaning. Maybe even reclaim some of that moral grounding that religion can offer. I wouldn’t say Pope Francis alone sparked this renewed curiosity to reconnect with a faith community, but he gave shape to it. He offered an example of what Christianity could be: tender, humble and radically kind.
As we mark his passing, I don’t mourn Pope Francis as a spiritual father. But I do mourn him as something even more rare: a quiet revolutionary, gently shaking an ancient institution and nudging it toward compassion. He was a bridge, not just between faith and doubt, but between the weight of tradition and the urgency of transformation.
For many of us who slipped away from the Church, he represented the kindness we were always looking for. The kindness many of us still strive to embody.
Even without the incense. Even without the pew.
Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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