Papal Announcement Stirs Memories Of Abuse Survivors

The pope’s surprise announcement that he’s stepping down triggers memories for the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Peter Isley says when the pope was known as Cardinal Ratzinger and head of a Vatican office, Ratzinger did not punish Father Lawrence Murphy, who sexually assaulted at least 200 children at a school for the deaf in Milwaukee.

“And I might add that the Pope has yet to reach out to the victims of father Murphy in this community and apologize to them and try to sit down with them and talk with them and reach some sort of forgiveness and understanding.”

Isley says it’s not too late for this pope to apologize, and that the next pope needs to throw any priests who are pedophiles out of the priesthood. Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki offers a a much different assessment of Pope Benedict, calling the pope a “true servant of Jesus Christ, and a phenomenal leader.”

But as speculation builds over the next pope, Marquette University student Claire Bird says she hopes for someone who will push the Milwaukee Archdioceses to settle its 2-year-old bankruptcy case and settle with abuse victims. “To keep a case going on that long is not really convenient to the people of the diocese, and should be cleared up more quickly.”

While some speculate the next pope could be New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, abuse survivors are not happy with some steps Dolan took when he headed the Milwaukee Archdiocese.