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Despite a "lifetime of child rape, (Father Murphy was buried) with full priestly honors. Pope Benedict XVI now faces a major hypocrisy test. He has been accepting resignations from bishops around the world who failed to take action against priest rapists. It is now no longer in dispute that he himself is guilty of the same criminal negligence...."
A secular official would be forced to resign and face criminal prosecution. His ecclesiastical obligation is to do it. "He has no moral right to hide behind Vatican walls." Today's "perfect storm" includes the pope, "a Vatican cardinal, two members of the Papal Apostolic Delagature, three Milwaukee archbishops, and (what's usually overlooked) the collusion of the local police and District Attorney."
Except for the press, especially the Milwaukee Journal, perhaps none of this would have come out. Yet the Vatican remains in damage control, AP reporting on April 1 it's "lash(ing) out against sex abuse coverage," in particular The New York Times for some rare journalistic integrity, notably on Laurie Goodstein's March 24 article headlined, "Vatican Declined to Defrock US Priest Who Abuses Boys," saying:
"Top Vatican officials - including the future Pope Benedict XVI - did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church...."
Instead of acting, Ratzinger and other officials' "highest priority was protecting the church from scandal," no matter how many boys were harmed. Better them than the church, the way it's been for centuries.
On April 2, Goodstein and Susan Saulny headlined, "Exiled Pedophile Priest May Have Continued Abuse," saying:
According to interviews with victims and new church documents, Father Murphy "also used his family's lakefront cottage as a lure in his sexual advances, bringing youths from the school (and the Northwoods region) into his home beginning at least in the early 1960s."
Times spokesperson Diane McNulty added:
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