WISCONSIN
Journal Times
Documents reveal details of former Racine County priests’ misconduct
ALISON BAUTER alison.bauter@journaltimes.com
MILWAUKEE — Thousands of documents released Monday detail allegations against 42 Milwaukee Archdiocese priests accused of sexually assaulting minors, including at least six who allegedly molested children in Racine County parishes.
In many instances, the priests have admitted to all or some of the charges, and several cases resulted in settlements with the church and received no media coverage at the time.
Former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan made 45 names public in 2004, identifying each with substantiated allegations of sexually abusing one or more minors; documents released Monday as part of the regional archdiocese’s bankruptcy process detailed 42 of those cases.
Six former Racine County parish leaders on the list allegedly abused minors while serving here.
A series of letters from then-Archbishop Dolan detail his efforts to de-frock Michael Benham, formerly an associate pastor at St. John Nepomuk Parish in Racine, who admittedly repeatedly sexually abused an 11-year-old there in the mid-1970s. The church stripped Benham of his title in 2009.
As was the case with many of the 42 priests, the documents detail
Benham’s struggle with alcoholism. In several of those cases the alcohol abuse reportedly intersects with instances of same-sex child abuse, as with Jerome Lanser, formerly of Racine’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where a police report states he sexually abused an eight- or nine-year-old boy from 1975 to 1976.
Children at St. John the Baptist in rural Union Grove reportedly feared former Pastor Eugene Kreuzer during his two-decade career there, which included multiple alleged abuses of teenage boys.
Daniel Budzynski, formerly of Caledonia’s St. Louis Catholic Church, references an “unfortunate incident” with a young boy during a church retreat, which Budzynski in a 2001 letter identified as “horsing around.” He transferred parishes shortly thereafter, and over the years allegedly abused multiple boys between age 7 and 16.
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