MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter
Marie Rohde | Aug. 13, 2013
MILWAUKEE
Fr. James Connell, a retired Milwaukee priest who helped found a national network of clergy and sisters committed to reporting instances of sexual abuse within the church, offered advice Tuesday for Catholic leaders dealing with the pedophilia scandal: Come clean.
“Maybe there are other issues that are buried that they don’t want us to hear about,” Connell said at a luncheon of the Milwaukee Press Club. “Maybe there’s something under the lid. I worry that there are other things there.”
Connell, a founding member of Whistleblowers, noted that the 6,000 pages of documents released as part of the Milwaukee archdiocese’s bankruptcy case represent only 10 percent of the documents contained in the court file.
“How much more damaging is the actual truth compared to what we are dreaming now?” Connell asked. “Jesus said ‘the truth will set you free.’ ”
About half the priests serving in the Milwaukee archdiocese are affiliated with religious orders, and the archdiocese has refused to release records of reports of misconduct made against those men, saying that the orders are responsible for them.
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