Vatican and Pope warned about priest - 200 victims, documents shredded

S.M.A.R.T.'s Ritual Abuse Page

also : Trial: abuse expert says Scouts put boys at risk

Pope knew about US deaf school predator priest, victim says 3/25/10 ST FRANCIS, Milwaukee — A US man claiming he was abused by a predator priest accused of molesting scores of deaf boys said Thursday Pope Benedict XVI knew about the latest sex scandal to rock the church and should be held accountable for it. "The pope knew about this. He should be held accountable," Arthur Budzinski said outside the Archdiocese of Milwaukee after a New York Times report said Vatican officials, including the future pope, failed to act on warnings that Father Lawrence Murphy was abusing boys at a school for the deaf here.


Murphy is believed to have molested as many as 200 boys at St John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin between 1950 and 1974. The New York Times published documents Thursday which show that top Vatican officials, including then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- who was elected pope in 2005 -- never took action against Murphy, despite many warnings from US bishops.

Budzinski, who is deaf and attended St John's, said in sign language, which was spoken to reporters by his daughter, that Murphy would come into the boys' dorm at night, take them into a closet and sexually molest them. Budzinski, who is now 62, said he told then archbishop of Milwaukee William Cousins and other officials about the abuse in 1974. The archbishop shouted at him and Budzinski "left the meeting crying," he said.

According to the documents published in the New York Times, in the 1990s -- years after the alleged offenses occurred -- then Archbishop of Milwaukee Rembert Weakland and another Wisconsin bishop wrote "directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope," about Murphy. Ratzinger failed to respond to the letter, and a canonical trial authorized by his deputy was halted after Murphy wrote to Ratzinger begging that the proceedings be stopped, the Times said. "While church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal," the newspaper said. Murphy died in 1998, having never been defrocked.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jK4hSiZZ14czYbRfbiPTiCWqVY5w

Vatican warned about Wisconsin priest report 3/25/10 AP Documents charge top Vatican office led by future pope was told of concerns about priest suspected in widespread abuse

Two Wisconsin bishops urged the Vatican office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — to let them conduct a church trial against a priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys, but the Vatican ordered the process halted, church and Vatican documents show.

Despite the grave allegations, Cardinal Ratzinger's deputy at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the alleged molestation had occurred too long ago and the accused priest, Rev. Lawrence Murphy, should instead repent and be restricted from celebrating Mass outside of his diocese....Church and Vatican documents obtained by two lawyers who have filed lawsuits alleging the Archdiocese of Milwaukee didn't take sufficient action against Rev. Murphy show that as many as 200 deaf students had accused him of molesting them, including in the confessional, while he ran the school.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/vatican-warned-about-wisconsin-priest-report/article1511470/


Wis. priest accused of molesting 200 deaf boys By DINESH RAMDE and GRETCHEN EHLKE, Associated Press Writers Dinesh Ramde And Gretchen Ehlke, 3/25/10 ST. FRANCIS, Wis. – Arthur Budzinski says the first time the priest molested him, he was 12 years old, alone and away from home at a school for the deaf. He says he asked the Rev. Lawrence Murphy to hear his confession, and instead the priest took him into a closet under the stairs and sexually assaulted him.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_re_us/us_church_abuse_wisconsin


Weakland shredded copies of sex abuse reports, documents say
By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel Dec. 3, 2009
Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests, according to formerly sealed testimony turned over to Milwaukee County's district attorney on Thursday. In a 1993 deposition, Weakland admitted destroying copies of the reports in his office, according to a partial transcript of the deposition released by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest director, turned over the partial transcript, as well as portions of the logs to which Weakland was referring, to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and asked him to review them for any possible criminal violations. Chisholm accepted the records and promised a thorough review.
The 16-year-old deposition documents have come to light during the discovery process in more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits filed against the Milwaukee archdiocese.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/78431087.html


Trial: abuse expert says Scouts put boys at risk - U.S. news By ABBY HAIGHT AP March. 24, 2010 PORTLAND, Ore. - The Boy Scouts of America showed reckless indifference to protecting young Scouts when it kept confidential two decades worth of files on suspected molesters among its troop leaders, a psychologist testified Wednesday as part of a $14 million lawsuit against the organization.
Despite creating a remarkably in-depth file about sexual abusers, the Boy Scouts failed to warn parents or tell authorities about suspected or confessed pedophiles, said Gary Schoener, a national expert and consultant on sexual misconduct in the clergy, health care and other segments of society.

Some boys may have become victims because of the silence, he told the Multnomah County Circuit Court jury....The Boy Scouts began keeping secret files on suspected molesters among its adult volunteers decades ago. Dubbed the "perversion files" by the organization, the more than 1,100 reports from 1965-84 were released into evidence in the suit last week....

Schoener, who studied hundreds of the formerly confidential files, said the detailed documents showed patterns, including how molesters would groom potential victims, how most pedophiles had many victims and how most re-offended. He said it was the most complete picture of sexual abusers and victims in the country at the time. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36028106/ns/us_news/