WISCONSIN
WUWM
By AUDREY NOWAKOWSKI
The nationwide sexual abuse scandal involving Catholic priests has gotten increased scrutiny in recent days with the release of a new movie about the investigation. “Spotlight” dramatizes the effort by the Boston Globe newspaper to bring abuses by priests in the Boston archdiocese to light.
It’s a scandal that also involved priests in Milwaukee. Reporter Marie Rohde’s work stretches back to 1980s, when she covered religion for the Milwaukee Journal. More than a quarter-century later, Rohde still writes about the issue as a freelancer, often for the independent National Catholic Reporter.
Rohde says the first time she heard about sexual abuse committed by a priest was in the mid 1980’s when a Louisiana priest was accused of abusing many boys for decades.
“My response was, ‘thank goodness it’s not here,'” she says.
However, within a few years, a priest in a Milwaukee northeast parish was accused by a victim of sexual abuse. At the time the allegations were not widely accepted by the community and the matter proceeded into a civil lawsuit and later, an out-of-court settlement.
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