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	Milwaukee Archdiocese Settles O.C. Case Church Officials, Who Transferred Priest to California, Agree to Pay $16 Million for Sexual-Abuse Claims Involving 10 Victims By Emily Fredrix The Associated Press, carried in Orange County Register September 2, 2006 http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1263496.php Milwaukee – The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle sexual-abuse claims involving 10 victims in California and a priest the archdiocese had transferred there, church officials said Friday. Half the settlement will come from insurance, the archdiocese said. The deal was reached after two days of court-ordered mediation. "Our hope, always, is to continue our progress in reaching resolution with anyone who was a victim of clergy sexual abuse," Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan said in a statement. "We believe this agreement brings closure to all cases in California and, hopefully, provides healing for victims/survivors." The Milwaukee Archdiocese had transferred Siegfried Widera to California in 1981, knowing the priest had a his-tory of abuse. The Diocese of Orange was just six months old in 1976 when it was confronted with the decision about whether to accept Widera, the Wisconsin priest who had been convicted in 1973 of molesting a boy. In a letter dated Dec. 20, 1976, Archbishop William Cousins of Milwaukee asked the Rev. Michael Driscoll, who'd been appointed to help the new bishop of the Orange Diocese, to find a place there for Widera. Cousins' letter didn't mention Widera's conviction, but did refer to "a moral problem having to do with a boy in school." Although Widera had obtained psychiatric treatment, the letter said, "there has been a repetition." Widera, who was staying with his brother in Costa Mesa, arranged to meet Driscoll for an interview on Jan. 10, 1977. That same day, personnel records show, Driscoll appointed Widera associate pastor at St. Pius V Parish in Buena Park. Over the next eight years, Widera went on to molest at least 10 boys in Orange County, according to suits the Diocese of Orange has settled. Widera's accusers received a total of $17.7 million from the diocese. Widera was facing 42 counts of child molestation in the two states when he died in 2003 after leaping from a hotel balcony in Mexico. Differences between California and Wisconsin law allowed the victims in California to sue the archdiocese years after the alleged abuse, while the Wisconsin victims could not. CONTACT US: Register staff writer Andrew Galvin contributed to this report.
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