Priest, SNAP Ask Listecki to Disinvite Mahony from Wisconsin Conference

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
February 6, 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/190030701.html

A prominent Wisconsin priest and advocate for clergy sex abuse victims is asking Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki to disinvite disgraced Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony from a spring assembly of local clergy, in light of the cardinal's recent sanction over his role in covering up clergy sex abuse for more than two decades.

Father James Connell of Sheboygan, former vice-chancellor of the archdioces, is asking that Listecki instead invite victim-survivors, their familes and friends, advocates, clergy and lay workers hurt by the scandal and others to speak, and that the conference be open to the media.

"Truly, this is a moment to generate hope," said Connell in an open letter sent to Listecki and distributed to media. A public accounting of the crisis and ongoing effects of the scandal would generate "optimism for the future of the Catholic Church," he wrote.

Mahony is scheduled to speak in May at the spring priests assembly. The archdiocese did not immediately return e-mails and telephone calls seeking comment.

The advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests issued a statement Wednesday endorsing Connell's request.

Mahony's successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, last week relieved him of all public duties as a result of the release of thousands of pages of documents detailing his and the archdiocese's handling of the sex abuses crisis there for decades. Gomez called the documents "brutal and painful reading" and the behavior detailed there as "terribly sad and evil."

Mahony defended his actions, saying he was ill-equipped to address the growing crisis in his early years and that he'd instituted unprecedented safeguards in the archdiocese as a result. He also criticized Gomez for acting only on the public release of the records, saying he knew their contents when he took over in 2011.

The Los Angeles records were released late last month as a result of a $660 million settlement with victims in 2007. The archdiocese had aggressively fought the release of the records, and had persuaded a judge to allow partial release blocking out the names of the top officials who responsible for handling the cases. That decision was overturned last month.

The public release of church records has been a major objective of victims in Catholic church lawsuits and bankruptcies over the years, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy, where attorneys for victims are seeking the release of clergy files and depositions of Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba -- both since retired -- who together handled the archdiocese's sex abuse cases for decades.