WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Peter Isely and James Connell
In a long-awaited court motion to be heard on Thursday in federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee, 570 victims/survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault by Catholic clergy and other church personnel will petition Judge Susan V. Kelley to release the sealed testimony of the two former Milwaukee bishops most responsible for decades of concealing and transferring known offender priests, Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba.
The motion, supported by the Creditors Committee appointed by Kelley, also will ask to unseal all evidence in the 570 claims, once appropriate redactions have been made. Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki has instructed his lawyers to oppose the motion. The archdiocese consistently wants to withhold this information.
For Catholics, confessing sin is good for the soul. Listecki acknowledged as much in a special clergy abuse Mass of Atonement last week. But confession in the Catholic Church requires penance, which is an action of justice that attempts to repair the harm. In other words, we cannot move from confession to healing without doing penance, and that includes doing justice and being truthful.
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