Hbo Begins Airing Critically Acclaimed Film on Milwaukee’s 200 Deaf Clergy Abuse Victims, Vatican Cover up

By Peter Isely
SNAP Wisconsin
February 4, 2013

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HBO begins airing critically acclaimed film on Milwaukee’s 200 deaf clergy abuse victims, Vatican cover up

St. John’s deaf victims’ pleas for justice still being attacked in court by Milwaukee Archdiocese

Film premieres tonight February 4, 8:00 CST and runs through the month

CONTACT:

Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee):

414.429.7259

Widely acclaimed by critics across the United States, HBO will begin airing tonight Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s devastating and meticulously researched new film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, documenting the sexual assault of at least 200 children at St. John’s School for the Deaf, operated by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and the decades long cover up of these crimes by church officials in Milwaukee and Rome, including the current Pope, Benedict XVI.

The film premieres tonight, February 4, 8:00 CST and will run through the month. It is also available on demand.

“Everyone needs to see this film but especially Catholics of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and most of all Archbishop Jerome Listecki and his 29 lawyers,” says Arthur Budzinski of West Allis, Wisconsin. Budzinski was sexually assaulted as a child by Fr. Lawrence Murphy who operated the boarding school. Budzinski is centrally featured in the film, along with several of his classmates. “Listecki,” continues Budzinski, “has done nothing but fight St. John’s victims and other victims of child sex assault by priests in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court, just as all the archbishops before him. After seeing this film, Milwaukee Catholics must tell him it’s time to stop.”

The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2010 in order to resolve “all claims of sexual abuse by priests,” according to Listecki at the time. “But two years and 10 million dollars in lawyers’ fees later, Listecki has done nothing but shamelessly try to throw out of court every single case filed by Murphy’s deaf victims along with over 500 other victims,” according to Peter Isely, the longtime Midwest Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Isely, from Milwaukee, was interviewed for the film and is himself a childhood victim of a Wisconsin priest.

“Many of the courageous survivors seen in this film were the first known childhood clergy sex assault victims in the world to go public with these crimes and cover ups,” says Isely. “The nearly super human persistence of the St. John’s survivors for several decades eventually brought the trail of deceit right to the Vatican and the very doorsteps of the current Pope. Instead of taking Murphy’s collar and turning him over to the authorities, the Pope joined officials of the Milwaukee Archdiocese in continuing to cover up Murphy’s crimes, keep him from justice and warmly embrace him as a fellow priest, right up until his death, when Murphy was arrayed at his funeral in gold liturgical vestments and other ornaments of priestly splendor. His gravestone obscenely has chiseled on it, with the consent of the archdiocese: ‘Rev Lawrence Murphy.’ In the meantime, hundreds of Murphy’s victims continue, to this very day, to languish in silence and pain.”

Listecki is currently at the center of a several recent actions that have SNAP and the St. John’s survivors concerned. “Listecki, in the past month alone, has been shown to be making questionable decisions by quietly returning a priest with multiple allegations of sexual ‘abuse to ministry, not cooperating with police in a current and active child sex abuse investigation, and trying to use the first amendment to keep the federal court from examining his predecessor, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s possible fraudulent transfer of tens of millions of dollars before filing for bankruptcy protection,” according to John Pilmaier, SNAP’s Wisconsin Director.

Information on the film, critical reviews, and air time can be found at this HBO link.

Recent SNAP statements and press on Mea Maxim Culpa and the Milwaukee premier, St. John survivors and the Murphy case, along with current news about Listecki and the archdiocese bankruptcy case can be found at the SNAPwisconsin.com site and blog.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com