Of Monsters And Saints. The Way-Back machine brings you another “moment” from The Mike Malloy Show – March 31, 2010. Listen to Mike exclusively on the non-profit Progressive Voices Radio network LIVE at 9PM ET here: http://www.progressivevoices.com/
Below is an excerpt. To read the rest of the words go here: http://www.voicesinourheads.com/2017/07/13/of-monsters-and-saints/
As we all know by now … Father Lawrence Murphy was accused of molesting at least 200 boys at a Wisconsin school for the deaf. This monster preyed upon children for 24 years. His horrendous crimes were covered up by school personnel and his immediate church superiors all the way up to Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
For some reason the Catholic Church’s protocols in matters of child rape by priests do not include turning the predator over to the police. They are handled instead by a department at the Vatican called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In 1996 Milwaukee’s archbishop, Rembert G. Weakland, wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, who at the time was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, alerting the CDF that Murphy had been accused of molesting children in the confession booth. It took the Vatican office eight months to respond to his letter.
In January 1998 Murphy wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, “I am seventy-two years of age, your Eminence, and am in poor health. I have just recently suffered another stroke which has left me in a weakened state. I have followed all the directives of both Archbishop Cousins and now Archbishop Weakland. I have repented of any of my past transgressions, and have been living peaceably in northern Wisconsin for twenty-four years. I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood. I ask your kind assistance in this matter.“
Murphy’s letter to Cardinal Ratzinger was not a plea to avoid being turned over to the police. He didn’t want to be kicked out of the priesthood. When Murphy died on August 21, 1998 Milwaukee Archbishop Weakland wrote to the Vatican to suggest closing the case.
Murphy was never indicted, tried, or convicted of any crime. Nor were any of his enablers.
