BishopAccountability.org
	Tangled Web They Wove Transferring Pedophile Priest to San Diego, Santa Barbara, L.a., Fox Point, Woodland, Milwaukee... Sept 2010 Lawsuit City of Angels October 11, 2010 http://cityofangels8.blogspot.com/2010/10/tangled-web-they-wove-transferring.html On her deathbed, his mother said that 20 years ago, when at age eight he told her Father Becker molested him, she went to Rembert Weakland, the Archbishop of Milwaukee, who told her to forgive the priest and leave the church, then cut off her financial aid. At the time the Catholic Church had been paying for the boy's childcare while his single mother tried to go to college. After his mother's death in 2009, the man contacted Jeff Anderson of Anderson Advocates in St. Paul, Minnesota, and another lawsuit concerning Father Franklyn Becker was filed September 16, 2010, this time in the Circuit Court Civil Division of the County of Milwaukee, concerning a priest who preyed upon children in California and Wisconsin. And people ask why it often takes victims decades to come forward about pedophile priest crimes.... In this case, "John Doe 17 was age 7-8 when Becker performed oral sex on him and tried to get John Doe 17 to do the same" to the priest, reads the Complaint. Like so many in the Catholic Church's MO for handling its criminal priests, Franklyn Becker got moved around a lot. For example, Becker reportedly is one of 41 clergy accused of molesting 51 children in Santa Barbara,. See Pages 1-2 of Sept. 16, 2010, Complaint from Wisconsin scanned here, page two lists 19 of his assignments: Six Degrees of Separation Dance As a predator who was transferred often by several bishops, Franklyn Becker ventured through at least 19 different assignments in his priestly career (UPDATE: See Post Note at bottom of this post). Becker is reportedly part of the paedophilia e predilecto flagrante that took place in Santa Barbara under G. Patrick Ziemann, who later as a bishop admitted to forcing a priest to have sex himself. A Franklyn Becker case was part of a Privacy Rights decision made by Judge Peter Lichtman of Los Angeles in 2007, a decision still muddling in the California state court of appeals process. Previous cases re Franklyn Becker influenced a Wisconsin State Supreme Court decision in 2007 to allow decades old lawsuits. This case filed September 16, 2010, got little media attention, as it was filed within days of a federal judge serving papers on the Vatican Secretary of State in a Jeff Anderson case from Oregon while CNN was promoting its September 25-26 special "What the Pope Knew" based on several Anderson cases. The Six Degrees of Separation Dance that is woven into the story of the epidemic of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church plays out clearly in Franklyn Becker's career. Why do these victims wait so long to come forward? is a comment you read often online, attached to news stories about pedophile priest claims by plaintiffs. The new case against Franklyn Becker of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and venues in Wisconsin such as Lyons, Fox Point, West Allis, Woodland, Cascade, and Milwaukee, tells part of the story of why it often takes plaintiffs decades to come forward about a pedophile priest: The Complaint says that in 2009, "Just before his mother died, John Doe 17's mother told him that after Plaintiff told her Becker was sexually abusing him, she then immediately met with Archbishop Weakland and reported that Becker had sexually abused her son. She told Plaintiff that Archbishop Weakland told her that she should forgive Fr. Becker and that she should leave the Catholic church." The Complaint continues: "At the time Plaintiff's mother met with Weakland, she was a single mother, struggling financially, and receiving financial assistance from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for her son's education and child care while she attended college. After she told Weakland that Becker had sexually abused her son, the financial assistance ended and she moved her family out of the state of Wisconsin." The Complaint asserts: "26. Defendant Archdiocese affirmatively represented to Plaintiff John Doe 17 and his family that Franklyn Becker did not have a history of molesting children, that Defendant Archdiocese did not know or suspect that Becker had a history of molesting children, or that Becker was a danger to children." Franklyn Becker did have a history and "Defendant Archdiocese knew or suspected that Franklyn Becker had a history of sexually molesting children and that he was a danger to children." Read the entire complaint here at Anderson Advocates website I know it's redundant but Franklyn Becker is also one of 41 clergy accused of molesting 51 children in Santa Barbara, as part of lawsuits that settled in that city in 2006. I feel it's a point that needs to be driven home, because civilians still do not seem to see that there was a pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church; and considering the expanse of the crime spree, hardly anything has been done by law enforcement or the courts about it, other than sound bites and promises and apologies followed quickly by more awards and glory and catered events for the cardinals. "In sworn testimony, Becker testified about his attraction to boys, his interest in the Man-Boy Love Association, his leanings toward being attracted to post-pubescent boys," wrote John Manly in the L.A. Daily Journal in July 2007. The Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles in charge of the Santa Barbara region when Franklyn Becker beach partied there was Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, who later himself admitted to intimidating a priest into sex while a bishop. The Becker case was part of a Privacy Rights decision that Judge Peter Lichtman made in 2007, says Manly's Daily Journal article. Previous cases against Becker were part of the decision in 2007 by the State Supreme Court of Wisconsin to allow decades old lawsuits from Milwaukee, because the Becker and a second California offender, Siegfried Widera, had been cited as child sex predators in California before coming to Wisconsin to rape kids in that state. "The victims claim that they did not fully realize the extent of the church's involvement in the coverup of abusive priests until 2004, when cases against the same priests in the Milwaukee lawsuit, Siegfried Widera and Franklyn Becker went to court in California." reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in July 2007. "Both Widera and Becker had served in parishes in the Milwaukee Archdiocese after they had been accused of abusing children and before they were moved to California." Continue Reading at bishop accountability or look him up in the database of accused priests under B. First transfer for Becker was from Wisconsin to the rural town of San Diego in the 1960s, after he perpetrated on several Midwestern boys, but Becker was back in Wisconsin by the 1980s. He never stopped perpetrating. More from the Complaint: "14. Defendant Archdiocese was in a specialized position where it had knowledge that Plaintiff did not." "11. On February 5, 1979, the Bishop of San Diego sent Archbishop Weakland a letter stating, 'No doubt there are psychological problems in Father Franklyn Becker's life that he must solve.'" In 1979, "Defendant Archdiocese represented that Franklyn Becker did not have a history of molesting children." And finally: "Had plaintiff's family known" in 1979 what the Catholic Church chose to keep secret about the priest's predilections, "Plaintiff would not have been molested" by Father Franklyn Becker.
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