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	Police Chief Again Calls for Policy Change Within LA Crosse Diocese WEAU March 26, 2010 http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/89297992.html Several deaf men are now claiming a priest, who has since died, molested them decades ago. The church apparently received fair warning about it, but never took the priest to task. Now Chief Jerry Matysik says it's time for the La Crosse Diocese to learn from all that. Victims say Reverend Lawrence Murphy molested 200 boys at Saint John's School for the Deaf near Milwaukee from 1950 until 1974. He died in 1998. A letter from the Archbishop of Milwaukee to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned of true scandal in the near future. Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict the 16th. According to documents obtained by NBC News, he never took Murphy to task for the alleged abuse. The Vatican later refused to hold a church trial against Murphy. "It verified for me how important...that people understand that these are criminal acts that should be reported to the police so they can be investigated objectively," said Chief Jerry Matysik of the Eau Claire Police Department. We asked Matysik to talk about the latest developments with the pope. He continues to speak out publicly against a La Crosse Diocese policy on child sexual abuse. That policy calls for anyone working for the diocese to report that kind of incident to a monsignor, and also to take that report to police. “What I'm urging them to do is send a proper message, a clear, proper message that says report these crimes to civil authorities,” Matysik said. He says more than 500 Wisconsin police chiefs back him. Their position statement basically mirrors what he says. Matysik says a copy went to the La Crosse Diocese, but he never heard back. “We respect that he has a right to his opinion, but our policies are reviewed regularly by the diocesan sexual abuse review board,” said James Birnbaum, who is the diocese’s attorney. “They're reviewed regularly with professionals and that's the direction we follow.” Matysik, a Catholic himself, says he plans to continue pushing for the policy to change. He admits that he doesn't expect that change to happen. The Vatican claims there was no cover-up in the Murphy case, and it denounces any attempt to connect the pope to the case.
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