WISN
April 21, 2010
http://www.wisn.com/12newsinvestigates/news/23226719/detail.html
[the court document]
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MILWAUKEE -- The Vatican said it had no role whatsoever in the abuse of deaf students by a Wisconsin priest and said a new lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top officials as defendants is just a publicity stunt.
In a statement, the Vatican's U.S. attorney Jeffrey Lena said the whole lawsuit is without merit and rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.
The lawsuit -- filed Thursday morning in St. Paul, Minn. -- claimed all parties involved helped cover up for an abusive Wisconsin priest.
The federal lawsuit centers around Father Lawrence Murphy who abused at least 200 hundred children at the School for the Deaf in St. Francis decades ago.
Some of his victims are seeking legal action against the pope.
Murphy worked at the School for the Deaf in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
The abuse of hundreds of children was virtually kept a secret until the 1990s.
Newly released documents show that's when the Milwaukee Archdiocese alerted a cardinal at the Vatican about Murphy, asking if Murphy should be removed from the priesthood.
Murphy died before the case was resolved. Now that cardinal is Pope Benedict XVI.
Lena said sympathy is due to the victims of Murphy. But he said the Vatican knew nothing of his crimes until decades after the abuse occurred and that it isn't responsible as a result.
In response, Peter Isely, the midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, released this statement:
"The pope's lawyer blames Wisconsin bishops for hiding Murphy's crimes too long. But when the Vatican knew of the devastation, it stayed silent and did little. So it doesn't matter whether the Vatican kept secret a day after or a decade after the rapes happened. What matters is that the Vatican, in fact, knew of child sex crimes and did little or nothing to protect the vulnerable or heal the wounded.
The lawsuit seeks the release of confidential Vatican files detailing clergy abuse allegations and unspecified monetary damages.
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