Today, a victim of Fr. Lawrence Murphy is filing a lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee.
Pope Benedict XVI is a defendant.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
A victim of the late Father Lawrence Murphy, a Catholic priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys over decades beginning in the 1950s, is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee Thursday afternoon naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants.
The lawsuit is expected to contend that Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and top Vatican officials "were provided detailed proof and direct admission by Murphy of criminal acts" but failed to alert federal authorities, place Murphy into sex offender treatment, remove him from the priesthood, alert parishes where he was working, or inform members of the deaf community of Murphy's criminal history, according to SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Evidence is expected to include a certified letter written by the unidentified victim to a top Vatican official in 1995, said Jeff Anderson, the Minneapolis lawyer representing church victims in Milwaukee and around the country.
The lawsuit will ask the court to order the release of the names and files maintained by the Vatican of thousands of offender priests; require the Vatican to end its policy of transferring and concealing records of abusive priests in the United States; and ask the court to set up a system in which it would monitor the church's compliance for 10 years, said SNAP Midwest Director Peter Isely.
The Milwaukee case would be the third now pending in U.S. courts against the Vatican. Appellate courts in recent months have allowed cases in Oregon and Kentucky to proceed, and the Vatican has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal in the Oregon case.
...The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is not named in the lawsuit. Spokesman Jerry Topczewski declined to comment. A woman who answered the phone at the Papal Nunciature, or embassy, in New York said all questions must be put in writing and faxed to the Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi. She said she could not guarantee he would respond.
The Milwaukee Archdiocese, and local police and prosecutors, have known of the allegations against Murphy since at least the 1970s, though victims say the archdiocese knew as early as the 1950s.
Why isn't the Archdiocese of Milwaukee named in the lawsuit?
Why not sue the Milwaukee Police Department?
I suppose that would detract from the big story -- suing the Pope.
He's the dream target.
What is this lawsuit really about?
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Read the Complaint.
"Plaintiff John Doe 16 is an adult male resident of the state of Illinois."
The defendants include:
Holy See (State of the Vatican City)
Joseph Ratzinger, individually
Tarsicio Bertone, individually
Angelo Sodano, individually
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