What Matt Flynn Did to Help Cover up Priest Abuse
By Peter Isely
In the case of Raymond Adamsky, who was determined to have sexually assaulted a child over several years, the vicar of clergy personnel writes Flynn informing him of the reassignment and thanking him for “meeting with us.” He tells Flynn it was good to have an “update on everyone.” In other words, the other priests. In another case, Flynn was part of a church leadership team that met repeatedly to discuss Michael Krejci. Flynn met privately with Krejci, as he did with many abusers. Krejci was sent to a church retreat facility for offender priests in 1995. Sexual abuse allegations against Krejci followed him after his 1997 transfer to another parish. Michael Neuberger, a known abuser, was transferred to a new parish despite pending sexual abuse allegations about which Flynn was consulted. In a subsequent 1993 evaluation, Neuberger admitted to abusing many children, specifically targeting “marginalized and very vulnerable” youth of color. Though he was not reinstated to a parish and was internally “restricted” from interacting with youth, he continued to remain a priest until 2010. As the Neuberger case demonstrates, admitted sexual abusers during Flynn’s tenure were almost never reported to authorities prior to a 2002 change in policy by the US Bishops. It was Flynn, according to depositions, who determined if an abuse report would be forwarded to authorities. These crimes against children were hidden from the public. In a particularly notorious case, Flynn was in charge of assessing “liability issues” and strategies that would be planned and implemented regarding Lawrence Murphy. The Archdiocese determined that Murphy had most likely sexually abused upwards of 200 deaf children. The “strategy” the Archdiocese and Flynn adopted was to keep these crimes silent, neither alerting the parish he had worked at, nor the authorities, nor the community he was residing in. Daniel Budzynski, yet another serial sex abuser with whom Flynn met, also admitted to abusing dozens of children in a 1994 Archdiocese evaluation. He was never reported to the police and not ordered to stop representing himself as a priest until 2003. Flynn also met privately with Budzynski. Finally, Cieslewicz flippantly repeats Flynn campaign lies against the motives of Reps. Chris Taylor and Melissa Sargent in speaking out against Flynn. Cieslewicz implies they are being coerced by unidentified party operatives. This is not just patronizing and insulting to them, but untrue. Reps. Taylor and Sargent met with survivors after learning about the documents. After hearing our voices, they did the responsible thing. Unlike Cieslewicz, before reaching any conclusions they read hundreds of pages of files about some of the worst priest sexual abusers that reveal Flynn’s role. And they decided to tell the truth instead of remaining silent. Cieslewicz should apologize to them and to all the child victims he so easily dismisses as he cheers on the gubernatorial run of a man who was involved in covering up the sexual assault of children by priests. As survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, we are responding to Dave Cieslewicz’s recent Citizen Dave post, “Flynn should stay in the race.” A number of us were sexually assaulted by priests within the Milwaukee Archdiocese during the time Matt Flynn was chief legal counsel to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, from 1989-2004. We have suffered together. We have sought healing together. And we have fought for the truth together. Our community includes three generations of survivors. Our oldest survivor is 94; the youngest is 16. Both were raped or assaulted between the ages of 5 and 7. In both cases, the priests had multiple, documented notifications or warnings to the archdiocese about their conduct, extending from 1936 to 2014. Cieslewicz’s column in support of Matt Flynn remaining in the governor’s race has forced on us again the burden of having to speak the truth about the terrible things that happened to us and how it was covered up by church officials with Flynn’s now well-documented help. Let us begin with a simple axiom of justice: It is wrong, for whatever reason or legal pretext, to cover up the sexual assault of children. Period. During his 15-year tenure as the Archdiocese chief legal counsel, Flynn was at the center of a power structure and leadership team that decided how to respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by priests. According to Archdiocesan internal policy, every priest sexual abuse allegation went to Flynn. He was also, according to a deposition of former Archbishop Rembert Weakland, the keeper of the list of all abusers. Flynn, in a statement on his website, denies any wrongdoing. He says that while representing the Archdiocese he “worked with others to put into place procedures to identify and remove abusive priests, notify the authorities, and prevent their transfer.” In another statement he says that neither he nor any lawyers “were involved in the reassignment of priests who had been accused of abuse of minors.”
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