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  Victim of Alleged Priest Molestation Sues the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

By Derrick Nunnally and Tom Heinen
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee WI]
May 16, 2005

For at least the third time, an adult who claims he was sexually abused by a priest as a child has sued the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for fraud over its handling of the situation.
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All I can say is that abuse is a very broad term. I would deny any physical abuse.
I really would.
I would admit to affection, but not abuse. If affection is equated with abuse, that's a very broad area.

- Franklyn Becker,
Former priest
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The suit against the archdiocese and former priest Franklyn Becker claims Becker, who was recently removed from the priesthood after 40 years, molested Charles Linneman, an altar boy the priest met while assigned to St. Joseph Church in Lyons in 1980. According to the lawsuit, the molestation happened two years later, while Becker was assigned to an unspecified Milwaukee church. The St. Joseph altar boy, then 14, went to Becker's church the night before he was to serve as an altar boy there.

In the lawsuit, Linneman claims he was sexually abused at Becker's living quarters at the parish. It says that situation could have been avoided if the archdiocese had publicly disclosed allegations that Becker "fondled the genitals of a 13- or 14-year-old boy on approximately 10 separate occasions" from 1971 to 1972, performed other sex acts on a 14- or 15-year-old boy in California in 1978 and reportedly molested other boys in 1980 and 1982. "Had (the) Plaintiff or his family known what Defendant Archdiocese knew - that Franklyn Becker had sexually molested numerous children before (the) Plaintiff and that Franklyn Becker was a danger to children, (the) Plaintiff would not have been sexually molested," the lawsuit says.

At a news conference held Monday to discuss the lawsuit and allegations that Becker molested two other men when they were boys at his churches, activists from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests distributed copies of an e-mail report from Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to priests and Catholic lay leaders that included a brief mention that Becker had been "returned to the lay state by the Holy See."

Becker, 67, of Mayville, said that he knew about the lawsuit from what he heard on news reports.

Told in a telephone interview that three men alleged Monday at a news conference and in a SNAP news release that he had abused them when they were minors, Becker replied:

"This is something that's very painful, and also something that is not as cut and dried as it looks. All I can say is that abuse is a very broad term. I would deny any physical abuse. I really would. I would admit to affection, but not abuse. If affection is equated with abuse, that's a very broad area."

Peter Isely, a regional spokesman for SNAP, contended that Becker was laicized, or defrocked, by the church because he was a dangerous abuser who was uncooperative, in denial and resisted supervision. The majority of priests who have been removed from active ministry and placed under restrictions and monitoring by the archdiocese have not been laicized, he said.

Isely and Nick Jordan, a man who accused Becker of abuse in California, criticized the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and Dolan for "secretly" returning Becker to the lay state - which removes him from church monitoring and supervision - without notifying the public.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said in an interview and in a prepared statement that Becker's laicization upheld assurances given by Pope John Paul II and the U.S. bishops that any priest who has committed even one act of sexual abuse of a minor "will be permanently removed from ministry."

She said that Becker was notified in December that John Paul had laicized him. At the same time, the archdiocese contacted Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls to alert him to that action and to provide him with information about Becker's history and place of residence, Hohl said.

In addition, the archdiocese indicated on its Web page list of abusive priests that Becker had been laicized, she said.

His name was on that list when it was publicly released by the archdiocese in July 2004, and Becker's name was reported by news media when he was charged with abuse in California, she added. Those charges were dropped in 2003.