BishopAccountability.org
	Don't Hide Claims of Priest Abuse By Mike Nichols Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Febriary 3, 2008 http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=714154 I know Todd Merryfield just a little; can't really say I know him well. Well enough, though, to know he's a successful guy with a nice house he recently built on a cul-de-sac in the Town of Cedarburg. What I know mostly is that he has done some very good things for the local community, been involved in ways that others have not. Until Sunday morning, I'd never talked to him about religion. I have friends I have known for years with whom I have never talked about religion. Some things are private. Some things, too, though, need to be public - much as they are painful and difficult. And, no matter what anyone says, not fully resolved. "We were raised Catholic," said Merryfield on Sunday morning, when I called him. "We went to church all the way along. I continued to go even though you have that burning in the back of your head." Went until he was contacted by a detective "out of the blue." And then it was, he says, like somebody punched him in the stomach. Even his wife hadn't known. Both Todd Merryfield and his brother Troy, people up in Freedom have found out in recent years, were victims of John Feeney, a sexually abusive priest who worked in 18 parishes in Wisconsin from 1952 to 1983. Feeney was sent to prison in 2004. But the case is far from over. Not long ago, the Merryfields filed a civil suit accusing the Diocese of Green Bay of fraudulently covering up Feeney's background while transferring him over and over and over again. "Make sure," Todd asked me Sunday morning, "that people understand this is not an attack on the Catholic Church." The Church, he said, is the people and the people are good. The issue is the leadership. The Green Bay Diocese, it has to be noted, has vigorously denied claims by the Merryfields and their attorney that there is any ongoing veil of secrecy, or that the diocese had not changed as a result of the scandals. The diocesan director of administration was even quoted as using the word "balderdash." If it is, that will surely come out in court. That's all people really want, after all: a day in court. The Merryfields will get one. But many others, for legal reasons that are difficult to synopsize in a short column, will not, unless legislators in the next few weeks give them the opportunity. Wisconsin has a long history of not allowing people who say they were victimized as children to file claims as adults, particularly in cases where the allegations are against priests. Priests, for years, were shielded not just by the church but by the law. That law, hopefully, is about to change once and for all - regardless of the cost. Not that, for victims like the Merryfields, it is about cost in the monetary sense. "It's not about the money," said Todd. "It still comes down to making sure the kids are protected and making sure the (Diocese of Green Bay) takes responsibility for what happened." Victims in Wisconsin should have the same rights as victims in other states. And it shouldn't make one iota of difference if a defendant is or was a priest, because until every victim has his or her day in court - and the church does as well - there will be, as Todd Merryfield says, no hope of even a "small sense of closure." For anyone. You need only talk to Todd Merryfield a little on a Sunday morning to know that. E-mail mnichols@journalsentinel.com
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