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	Superior Diocese Denies Bishop Aided Widera Coverup Associated Press, carried in Duluth News Tribune [Superior WI] March 17, 2005 SUPERIOR, Wis. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior says Bishop Raphael Fliss never helped cover up a priest's history of sexual abuse while serving as an administrator with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee three decades ago, as a recently filed lawsuit suggests. The diocese issued a news release responding to the accusations in a lawsuit filed March 3 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court by two clergy abuse victims. The lawsuit accused the Milwaukee Archdiocese of fraud and said Fliss helped with the coverup regarding the late Rev. Siegfried Widera. The male victims said that as minors they were abused dozens of times by the priest from 1973-76. The abuse occurred after Widera had been convicted of sexual perversion with a teenager in 1973 and after the archdiocese transferred him to the St. Andrew's parish in Delavan from Port Washington without warning the public, the suit said. Widera was sent to a California parish three years later, also without warning, the lawsuit said. When Widera leapt to his death from a hotel balcony in May 2003, he had been charged with 42 counts of child molestation in California and Wisconsin. According to the lawsuit, Fliss ignored the abuse while he was vice chancellor and secretary to the Milwaukee archbishop from 1970-78. It cites church documents showing that a man called "Ralph F. for the Archbishop" was told that church officials would try to persuade a victim's mother not to go to police. The Superior Diocese said it reviewed the legal documents filed with the lawsuit and found only one note, dated July 1, 1976, showing that an unknown person apparently had "called and left above information with Ralph F. for the Archbishop." No other records or documents indicate any involvement of Fliss with the matter, the diocese said, and Fliss does not recall the message from 29 years ago. In his role with the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Fliss was not involved in deciding the placement of Widera or other priests, the diocese said. As for the reference in the one record, "there is no indication as to what information was given and in what manner it was provided to `Ralph F.'," the diocese said. "Hence, the implication in the news reports that Bishop Fliss was involved in any decision-making process regarding Father Widera in 1976 is simply not true." Peter Isely, Milwaukee spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a release Thursday that there were still unanswered questions about Widera's transfer and Fliss' knowledge of it. "Even if he did not know of or condemn the transfer of Father Widera and the conspiracy by the Milwaukee Archdiocese, he can do so now," Isely said. "He can demand that any bishop or cleric involved in the Widera conspiracy be removed from his post and face church discipline and possible expulsion from the clerical state." He said one of Widera's victims who does not want his name used felt Fliss was "blessed with forgetfulness," while the victim can't forget anything about the assaults he suffered at the age of 8 to 10 at St. Andrew's parish. When the lawsuit was filed March 3, the Milwaukee Archdiocese said in a statement that it continues to "work proactively toward resolution" of sexual abuse claims but did not comment on the suit directly. The archdiocese said that as of December it had settled 47 of 112 claims through an independent mediator. In its news release, the Superior Diocese said it is encouraging that church officials in Milwaukee are trying to mediate claims of Widera's victims. "Bishop Fliss hopes that the victims of Father Widera find peace and solace in that process," it added.
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