{"id":419,"date":"2008-01-31T13:05:33","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T13:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html"},"modified":"2008-01-31T13:05:33","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T13:05:33","slug":"milwaukee-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very tough times in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee these days.
\nOver the past few months, the Archdiocese has unveiled\u00a0 initiatives designed to build the faith of people of the diocese, as well as invigorate institutions and provide for the future of those insitutions:
\nThe Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign<\/a>
\nVision: 21st Century Planning<\/a>
\nLiving our Faith: A Love Beyond Belief. Act on it.<\/a>
\n(The last includes a weekly television show featuring Archbishop Dolan, viewable online)
\nUnfortunately, but inevitably, these efforts will take a backseat this week to bad news on another front: the unsealing of court records related to abuse cases and the price being paid by the people of the Archdiocese for clerical sexual abuse.
\nEarlier this week, the Archdiocese published\u00a0 documents on its website <\/a>in anticipation of the unsealing of records. From Archbishop Dolan’s letter:<\/p>\n

For example, you\u2019ll remember in summer of 2006, I told you about lawsuits facing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for sexual abuse cases involving former priests Siegfried Widera and Franklyn Becker, and the pending financial consequences of those lawsuits. Those ten cases in California were settled in a multi-million dollar agreement, all of which I made public.
\nIn July of 2007, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down a decision directing that cases alleging fraud by the archdiocese about sexual abuse by two accused priests of the archdiocese could proceed, even though the events were 20-to-40-years old.
\nThose cases have now been returned to the trial judges to go forward through normal court procedures, and we can expect to hear a lot about them. In addition, since July 2007, two other cases have been brought against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, alleging sexual abuse in Wisconsin by a different priest, Bruce MacArthur. While not a priest of our Archdiocese of Milwaukee, he did serve here for several years.
\nDuring the next weeks, the records of these three accused priests will be part of court proceedings, and we can expect they will be given to the media. Thus, I am sending you this newsletter to let you know of the sordid information that will be forthcoming. As you have often told me: \u201cArchbishop, when there is bad news coming, we\u2019d prefer to hear it from you.\u201d Well, as you will see, this news is nauseating.
\nThere are three priests accused of wrongdoing. None of these three accused individuals are now serving as priests within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, nor have they done so for many years.
\nThe accused are Siegfried Widera, Bruce MacArthur and Franklyn Becker. Widera is dead; MacArthur, 84, is aged and residing in a controlled nursing home; and Becker was laicized in 2004 and expelled from ministry. I mentioned these three at our four recent meetings regarding the \u201cstate of the archdiocese.\u201d
\nHowever, I want to talk specifically about the case involving Franklyn Becker. As I said, Becker was permanently removed from the priesthood at my request in 2004. Although there could be various explanations for all the decisions that were made or not made, at the end of the day, you will see, I have to admit, these decisions are a particularly ugly example of how the Church made some dreadful mistakes in its handling of these cases. The reports about this ex-priest are very troubling.
\nSome might argue that since both doctors and civil officials made the same mistakes by recommending reassignments, transfers, or \u201cfresh starts,\u201d that the Church should not be held accountable for the decisions made 20 or 30 years ago. Some would say that the Church was simply following the \u201cpraxis\u201d of the time, considering the circumstances, the body of knowledge then available to us, and the recommendations that were presented, suggesting offenders could be rehabilitated, moved, and reassigned.
\nThis might all be true, but I need to say that our faith tells us that our Church must acknowledge that poor decisions were made, regardless of how these decisions were reached. And, the Church\u2019s decisions about Becker were badly misguided.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today’s Milwaukee Journal conveys bad finanacial news<\/a>. One of the measures that was going to be taken to fund settlements in these cases was the sale of the Cousins Center – once a minor seminary, then turned into use for Archdiocesan office. The sale has fallen through:<\/p>\n

When the California lawsuits were settled, it appeared that the archdiocese had avoided bankruptcy. But the Wisconsin suits may lead to reconsideration of that because, except for the Cousins Center, the archdiocese has sold most of its property and does not have reserves, Topczewski said.
\n“At some point, if we have judgments and we are unable to have the assets to cover them, that (bankruptcy) is going to be one option that’s looked at,” Topczewski said.
\nIn addition, a bill is pending in the state Legislature that would create a limited time period in which any victims of childhood sexual abuse by clergy could file civil suits against denominations no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Dolan has said passage of the bill also would raise the possibility of bankruptcy, Topczewski said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m interested in watching the coverage of this awful situation, the fruit of sinful behavior of clerics, ignored and covered up by the hierarchy (and\u00a0at times, \u00a0law enforcement as well<\/a>).\u00a0 Assuming that he’s still\u00a0in good shape (he’s\u00a0near 80 now)\u00a0I’d think that Archbishop Weakland\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0would be a go-to source for articles on this crisis.
\nWouldn’t you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very tough times in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee these days. Over the past few months, the Archdiocese has unveiled\u00a0 initiatives designed to build the faith of people of the diocese, as well as invigorate institutions and provide for the future of those insitutions: The Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign Vision: 21st Century Planning Living…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMilwaukee Blues - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Milwaukee Blues - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Very tough times in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee these days. Over the past few months, the Archdiocese has unveiled\u00a0 initiatives designed to build the faith of people of the diocese, as well as invigorate institutions and provide for the future of those insitutions: The Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign Vision: 21st Century Planning Living…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-31T13:05:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Milwaukee Blues - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Milwaukee Blues - Via Media","og_description":"Very tough times in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee these days. Over the past few months, the Archdiocese has unveiled\u00a0 initiatives designed to build the faith of people of the diocese, as well as invigorate institutions and provide for the future of those insitutions: The Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign Vision: 21st Century Planning Living…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-01-31T13:05:33+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html","name":"Milwaukee Blues - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-01-31T13:05:33+00:00","dateModified":"2008-01-31T13:05:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/01\/milwaukee-blues.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Milwaukee Blues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}