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	Rev Lawrence Murphy’s Paedophilia ‘as Widely Known, but Ignored’ By Richard Owen The Times March 26, 2010 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7076613.ece The emotional scars remain years later for victims of Father Lawrence Murphy, a priest who molested generations of youngsters in the US Midwest state of Wisconsin. Donald Marshall, who was abused by Murphy when he was a teenager at a juvenile detention centre, said: “I haven’t stepped in a church for some 20 years. I lost all faith in the Church.” Arthur Budzinski was abused at a school for the deaf in the city of St Francis, in the Milwaukee Diocese. Murphy taught at the school from 1950 to 1974, and even became director , despite the allegations. Mr Budzinski said the priest would come to their dormitory at night and molest the deaf pupils. He was first molested by Murphy when he was 12, and was deceived by his “friendliness”. “If he was a real mean guy, I would have stayed away,” said Mr Budzinski, using sign language interpreted by his daughter. “But he was so friendly, and so nice ... I knew he was wrong, but I couldn’t really believe it.” One of the lawyers involved in the case said: “Instead of removing him from the priesthood, they just gave him a free pass.” Documents show that the Archbishop of Milwaukee then, the Most Rev Rembert Weakland, warned Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone that Murphy had “no sense of remorse” and did not seem to realise the gravity of what he had done. He told the cardinal that three psychologists had concluded that Murphy was a “typical” paedophile who saw himself as “a victim”. In the documents, the victims describe how Murphy “touched” them in his office, in his car, his mother’s house, on class excursions, on fundraising trips and in their dormitory beds at night. Three successive bishops of Milwaukee were told that Murphy was abusing children. Yet he was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he remained active in parishes, schools and the juvenile detention centre, where Mr Marshall lost his faith. Murphy died in 1998 of natural causes.
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