Cardinal Timothy Dolan to Be Deposed in Massive Church Abuse Case from His Days in Milwaukee
By Daniel Beekman
Cardinal Dolan, seen here on Ash Wednesday, is being deposed today in a church sex abuse lawsuit, the New York Times reported. Timothy Cardinal Dolan was grilled Wednesday by lawyers for hundreds of people who claim they were sexually abused by priests in Milwaukee, where he once served as archbishop. In the closed-door deposition, Dolan faced down attorneys for 350 of about 570 people who say they were maltreated by clergy in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, which he led until 2009, when he became the Pope’s New York man. Dolan’s spokesman said Wednesday that the leader of 2.6 million New York Catholics — who has been discussed as a possible candidate for Pope — welcomed the chance to address the issue. “Today Cardinal Dolan had the long-awaited opportunity to talk about his decision nine years ago in Milwaukee to publicize the names of priests who had abused children and how he responded to the tragedy of past clergy sexual abuse of minors, during the time he was privileged to serve as archbishop of Milwaukee,” spokesman Joseph Zwilling said in a statement. But advocates for survivors of clergy abuse lashed out at Dolan and said they hope his deposition airs the church’s dirty laundry. “We want him to answer exactly what he did with abusive priests, why he was paying them off and why he said he couldn’t provide decent restitution for survivors while moving tens of millions of dollars into secretive accounts,” said Peter Isley, who claims he was abused by a Milwaukee priest in the late 1970s. The sealed lawsuits likely range from the 1970s to the present, said Isley, 52, the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. It was unclear Wednesday how the grilling would affect Dolan, who has been a subject of much discussion amid Pope Benedict’s resignation. But the deposition comes at a delicate time for the city’s popular prince of the church. Dolan plans to travel to Rome next week for the conclave that will choose Benedict’s successor. When Dolan took charge in Milwaukee in 2002, supporters welcomed the charismatic St. Louis native, who promised to stamp out abuse. He replaced Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who admitted to paying a man who accused him of sexual assault $450,000 in hush money. Dolan’s Milwaukee tenure came back to menace him in 2011, when lawyers for the alleged victims said the archdiocese hid up to $130 million in assets to avoid lawsuit payouts. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2011. Zwilling said Dolan’s deposition was completed Wednesday afternoon at the cardinal’s New York office. Jeff Anderson, one of two lawyers who questioned Dolan, said he was forbidden from commenting after the deposition. Contact: dbeekman@nydailynews.com
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