Contradicting Dolan's Emphatic Denials, Archdiocese of Milwaukee Confirms Pedophile Priests Paid off under His Watch

By Peter Isely
SNAP Wisconsin
May 30, 2012

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Contradicting Dolan's emphatic denials, Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirms pedophile priests paid off under his watch

Statement by Peter Isely Midwest Director (Milwaukee)

CONTACT: 414.429.7259

This afternoon the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has confirmed charges brought in a press conference this morning by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee under the direction of Cardinal Timothy Dolan routinely paid off pedophiles to quietly leave the priesthood and disappear into the community. Dolan emphatically denied such a charge in 2006. But a new document surfacing in the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy case shows that Dolan had discussed such a scheme with his Finance Council in 2003. Now we know, he implemented it.

According to an email from Julie Wolf, the current Communications Director of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Dolan and the current Archbishop Jerome Listecki paid off offender priests at least $20,000 each—over and above their pensions, health care and other possible benefits—because it was a "faster and less expensive" way to have them "laicized" by the Vatican. Laicization is an administrative procedure to have a priest defrocked. In other words, if you're a priest who has committed criminal conduct you get to remain a priest for some indefinite period of time unless you can be bribed to voluntarily sign a piece of paper which is sent to Rome that says you won't function as a priest anymore. This is as ludicrous as a school board, instead of firing a teacher for criminal acts against children, calling the police, and revoking his license to teach, instead saying that they had to pay the child molester tens of thousands of dollars to hand over their license to the board.

How wrong would it be to use church funds for these kinds of payouts to pedophiles? Ask Cardinal Dolan. When serial child predator Fr. Franklyn Becker admitted in 2006 that he had, indeed, been paid $10,000 dollars for signing his laicization papers and SNAP demanded an answer from the archdiocese, here is what Dolan said: "For anyone to assert that this money was a 'payoff' or occurred in exchange for Becker agreeing to leave the priesthood is completely false, preposterous and unjust." Dolan went on to say the Becker's payout was for "charitable" reasons and health insurance. Yet, the minutes that have now surfaced from a 2003 Archdiocese of Milwaukee Finance Council meeting, attended by Dolan and his auxiliary bishop Richard Sklba, make very clear that these laicization payouts were independent of salaries, pensions and health insurance. They were a no strings attached financial bonus to help child molesters walk away from the priesthood and disappear into the community.

Several questions must now be answered by Dolan: How many predator priests did you pay off to leave the priesthood in Milwaukee and is this practice being deployed now in New York? Where did the pedophile priest "slush fund" come from? Who are these dangerous predators and what communities were they quietly dumped into? Is this standard practice of your brother bishops throughout the United States?

RELEASES/DOCUMENTS

SNAP 5-30 Advisory: Minutes from 2003 confirm: Dolan discussed paying $20,000 each to child molesters to quietly leave the priesthood

SNAP's letter to current Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki on the Dolan payouts

2003 Minutes of the Archdiocesan Finance Council

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com