Minnesota Attorney Files Lawsuit Against Pope & Vatican

Minnesota Attorney Files Lawsuit Against Pope, Vatican

MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN

http://www.wisn.com/12newsinvestigates/news/23226719/detail.html

[the court document]http://www.andersonadvocates.com/ViewFile.aspx?ID=445

MILWAUKEE -- A lawsuit aimed at Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican, and two cardinals was filed Thursday morning in St. Paul, Minn.

The lawsuit claims all parties involved helped cover up for an abusive Wisconsin priest.

The federal lawsuit centers around Father Lawrence Murphy who abused at least 200 hundred children at the School for the Deaf in St. Francis decades ago.

-----

Case Against Vatican In Sex Abuse Lawsuit Outlined

UNITED STATES
MyStateLine

[the complaint]

[Documents regarding Murphy which were sent to the Vatican]

[victim's letter to the Vatican]http://www.andersonadvocates.com/ViewFile.aspx?ID=447

(Minneapolis, MN) -- (Minneapolis, MN) -- A legal volley has been fired by an Illinois man who claims he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest while a student at a deaf school for children in Milwaukee.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court alleges Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict, for years covered up hundreds of cases of abuse by a now-deceased Wisconsin priest.

Attorney Jeff Anderson contends senior Vatican officials also had a secret policy of refusing to cooperate with law enforcement officials on such matters.



Anderson has released court documents appearing to indicate the Pope's involvement in the case surrounding Reverend Joseph Murphy stems from when he was then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany.

Anderson alleges Ratzinger and other top Vatican officials sought to stop the effort to defrock Murphy in connection with the sexual abuse allegations.

Anderson told reporters they felt a moral obligation to filed the lawsuit.

He says the victims want action "that does and will protect the kids." The lawyer says the top officials at the Vatican are named in the lawsuit "because they are at the top of the pyramid that requires secrecy."

A 1994 letter from one deaf victim implored the Vatican and the late Pope John Paul the Second to excommunicate Murphy for his crimes.

Anderson says there was no response from Rome and that the request from a deaf man essentially, quote, "fell on deaf ears." Before his death, Murphy admitted he had molested many children.

He wrote to Ratzinger asking for mercy and stating he had repented for his "transgressions."

=========

U.S. lawsuit against pope not legitimate: Vatican

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Friday dismissed as illegitimate a lawsuit filed in the United States against Pope Benedict and his top aides over a case of sexual abuse at a school for deaf boys in Wisconsin.

"The case against the Holy See and its officials is completely without merit. Most of the complaint rehashes old theories already rejected by U.S. courts," Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said in a statement.

"While legitimate lawsuits have been filed by abuse victims, this is not one of them," the lawyer said.

-----

New Lawsuit Shows Letters to Vatican on Sexual Abuse Earlier Than Previously Thought

UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: April 22, 2010

Documents released in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Pope Benedict XVI show that the Vatican was informed more than a year earlier than previously thought about the case of a priest who molested deaf boys for two decades at a boarding school in Wisconsin.

One victim of the priest wrote two letters to the Vatican’s secretary of state in 1995 asking Pope John Paul II himself to read his anguished letters and “excommunicate” the priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Father Murphy, who died in 1998, admitted to a psychologist hired by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that he had molested 34 children when he worked at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wis., from 1952 to 1974. Church officials concluded that there might have been as many as 200 victims.

------

SNAP says Lawsuit Against Pope is No 'Publicity Stunt'

MILWAUKEE (WI)
TMJ4

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/91897444.html

[Click Here to read the suit.]

By Jon Byman, Heather Shannon
MILWAUKEE - Victims of priest sex abuse are suing Pope Benedict.

The victims filed a federal lawsuit in Milwaukee against the Pope and other top Vatican officials. The suit claims the Vatican leadership covered up claims of sex abuse.

The 55 page lawsuit was filed Thursday.

"We're here because we're trying to bring to the world this terrible crime," said Arthur Budzynski through a translator. Budzynski is a victim of Father Lawrence Murphy. Murphy is believed to have abused some 200 boys while he ran the St. John's School for the Deaf between 1950 and 1974.

The victims claim the catholic church knew about it and did nothing to stop it. "Father murphy may have stolen our bodies, but the cardinal and the archbishops stole our voices," Budzynski said.