Report: Documents show Vatican was told about Wis. priest who may have molested 200 boys

Report: Vatican was warned about priest in Wis.

NEW YORK — Milwaukee’s Roman Catholic archbishop warned a top Vatican office led by the future Pope Benedict XVI about a priest who may have molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to documents obtained by The New York Times, but the priest was never defrocked.

The documents were provided by two lawyers who have filed lawsuits alleging the Archdiocese of Milwaukee didn’t take sufficient action against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. The priest, who died in 1998, worked at the former St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis from 1950 to 1975.

In 1996, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland sent letters about Murphy to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope. Weakland received no response from Ratzinger, the Times reported.

Eight months later, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone — now the Vatican’s secretary of state — told the Wisconsin bishops to begin secret disciplinary proceedings, according to the documents. But Bertone halted that process after Murphy wrote to Ratzinger saying he already had repented, was ailing and that the case’s statute of limitations had run out, the Times reported.

The documents contain no response from Cardinal Ratzinger.

Weakland also wrote to a different Vatican office in March 1997, saying an attorney’s impending lawsuit would make the case public.

The documents emerged even as the Vatican deals with an ever-widening church abuse scandal sweeping several European countries. Benedict last week issued an unprecedented letter to Ireland addressing the 16 years of church cover-up scandals here. But he has yet to say anything about his handling of a case in Germany known to have developed when, as cardinal, he oversaw the Munich Archdiocese from 1977 to 1982.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Vatican, said in a statement that the Vatican was not told about the abuse allegations against Murphy until 1996, years after civil authorities had investigated and dropped the case. Lombardi also said that Murphy’s age, poor health and a lack of more recent allegations were factors in the decision not to defrock him.

He noted “the Code of Canon Law does not envision automatic penalties” and that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith suggested the Milwaukee archbishop consider such things as restricting Murphy’s public ministry and requiring that he “accept full responsibility for the gravity of his acts.”

The Times obtained the Murphy documents from Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, attorneys for five men who have sued the Milwaukee archdiocese alleging fraud. The newspaper said the documents included letters between bishops and the Vatican, victims’ affidavits, the handwritten notes of an expert on sexual disorders who interviewed Murphy and minutes of a final meeting on the case at the Vatican.

Anderson said he would e-mail the documents to the AP on Thursday. He said in a phone interview Wednesday night that they show the Vatican was more concerned about possible publicity than about the abuse allegations.

“Instead of removing him from the priesthood, they just gave him a free pass,” Anderson said. “In this case, it’s a free pass at the highest level.”

After Murphy was removed from the school in 1974, he went to northern Wisconsin, where he spent the rest of his life working in parishes, schools and, according to one lawsuit, a juvenile detention center.

Previously released court documents show Weakland oversaw a 1993 evaluation of Murphy that concluded the priest likely assaulted up to 200 students at the school.

Weakland resigned as archbishop in 2002 after admitting the archdiocese secretly paid $450,000 to a man who accused him of sexual abuse.

Information from: The New York Times, www.nytimes.com