The disgraceful saga of Roman Catholic priests molesting boys never seems to end, with the latest chapter coming out of Milwaukee – and involving Pope Benedict XVI.
The New York Times has a front page story Thursday, headlined “Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Deaf Boys,” which is about the Wisconsin case of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25vatican.html?hp
Father Murphy worked at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, a well-respected school for the deaf, from 1950 to 1974. During that period, he molested as many as 200 boys.
Bishops from the United States, including Wisconsin, had sent Vatican officials, including the future pope and then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had asked Rome to take action on Father Murphy, according to church documents that surfaced as part of a lawsuit.
But it appears that avoiding a public scandal, not defrocking a pedophile priest, was the Vatican’s priority.
In 1996 Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland wrote Cardinal Ratzinger two letters about Father Murphy, but never got a response from him. Eventually, the Vatican did tell the Wisconsin bishops to initiate secret internal proceedings against the priest.
But those were suspended after Father Murphy wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, pleading that he had repented, was sick and that his case was outside of the Church’s statute of limitations, The Times reported. Father Murphy, still a priest, died in 1998.
The newspaper got access to the Church documents from lawyers Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, who represent five men who have filed four suits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Not only was Father Murphy spared a punishment by the Church, but according to documents police and prosecutors never acted on allegations brought by his victims.
Father Murphy was sent to Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin, moved by Archbishop William Cousins of Milwaukee. He spent 24 years in upper Wisconsin, working with children during that span.
There had been many complaints about Father Murphy in Milwaukee, so much so that Archbishop Weakland in 1993 had him evaluated by a specialist in sexual offenders. That social worker reported that the priest had admitted sexually abusing about 200 boys, and that he was remorseless.
Still, Archbishop didn’t move to have Father Murphy defrocked until 1996, and failed.
