Deaf School Group to Honor Delavan Man Who Helped Expose Priest Abuse

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
October 13, 2014

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/deaf-school-group-to-honor-delavan-man-who-helped-expose-priest-sex-abuse-b99370308z1-279044571.html

Arthur Budzinski

Arthur Budzinski, a deaf man who helped expose one of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's most notorious child sexual abusers, the late Father Lawrence Murphy, will be honored Saturday by the Wisconsin School for the Deaf Alumni Association.

Budzinski, who graduated from the school in 1968, is among 10 alumni who will be inducted into the Delavan school's Hall of Fame for their service to the community.

"Arthur has been a courageous and staunch advocate for victims abused by priests since the early 1970s," the association said in announcing the award.

Budzinski was among dozens of boys molested by Murphy as children at the archdiocese's St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis between 1950 and 1974. One church psychologist estimated Murphy may have molested as many as 200 deaf children before he died in 1998.

Budzinski was among a group of alumni who had been pushing the church since the 1970s to remove Murphy and confront its failure to protect children. Their work has been documented by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and New York Times and was featured in the 2012 Alex Gibney documentary, "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God."

He is among the 575 men and women who have filed sex abuse claims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy alleging they were molested by priests and others connected to the church as children. A member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, he is a regular presence at protests on the federal courthouse steps.

Budzinski, who says he still suffers the effects of the abuse, said he is honored by the award.

"I feel good about it," he said through a sign language interpreter. "I fought for it.