MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 12, 2005
On the eve of a critical state Supreme Court decision, sexual abuse survivors accused the Milwaukee Archdiocese on Tuesday of using intimidation to discourage future lawsuits by trying to have three anonymous plaintiffs identified in public court records of cases that were being dismissed.
An archdiocesan spokeswoman denied any intent to make the names public, saying Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan remained committed to working with and hearing from survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
The flare-up was fanned by a news conference the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held in front of the main entrance to archdiocesan offices at the Cousins Center in St. Francis.
"I just found about this yesterday," a tearful Sharon Tarantino, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and a member of the archdiocese's Community Advisory Board on sexual abuse, said after the news conference. "It's almost like everything we have discussed during the meetings has been a lie."
Archdiocesan spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl issued a statement Tuesday saying the archdiocese never asked for public disclosure of the names of victims or survivors of clergy sexual abuse.