MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: June 9, 2005
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Guolee may have felt that state law gave him no choice, but his ruling in two fraud lawsuits involving the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese serves the interests of pedophile priests and not the victims of clergy sexual abuse. That's not how the justice system should work, and it's why the state Legislature needs to approve a legal window that would give victims a chance to find some justice in such cases.
Guolee threw out the cases because, he said, the statute of limitations had run out on alleged assaults by Father Siegfried
Widera, who was accused of molesting children here in the 1970s. But in the 1970s, some church officials worked very hard to make sure abuse cases didn't come to light. Priests were quietly transferred, and victims and families were pressured by church officials to remain silent about the abuse. Widera, for example, was moved to California and was accused of abuse there. He killed himself in 2003.