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  Clergy Victims Group Tries Again for Civil Suits against Dioceses

By Juliet Williams
The Associated Press, carried in Janesville Gazette [Milwaukee WI]
August 11, 2005

MILWAUKEE - A man who claims he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest for six years sued the Milwaukee Archdiocese for fraud Thursday in the latest attempt by victims to overturn Wisconsin's ban on lawsuits against religious groups.

Wisconsin courts have upheld a decade-old ruling that prevents alleged victims from seeking damages. It is the only state in the country with such a law.

Victims' groups hope evidence obtained in a recent suit in California might persuade a judge to hear the case.

The man, now 44 and identified in court records only as John Doe, claims high-ranking officials in the archdiocese knew for years that the Rev. Siegfried Widera was sexually abusing children, yet transferred him between schools to cover it up.

The archdiocese transferred Widera in 1976 to the Diocese of Orange in California, where Widera acknowledged molesting at least 10 boys, according to a psychological evaluation there.

Widera was convicted in Wisconsin in 1973 of sexual perversion with a boy, and while serving probation in the state for that crime, a therapist reported that the mother of a 10-year-old altar boy said her son had been abused.

Notes from the archdiocesan ombudsman say Widera said he had "a slip" while on a fishing trip with the boy. They say the ombudsman would "try to keep the lid on the thing, so no police record would be made," and that the boy's mother "feared reprisals from the Church if she would go to police."

Those notes and others filed in Thursday's lawsuit were obtained as evidence in the California suit, which went ahead last year and was filed by Doe's brother. The brother claims he was sexually abused by Widera in Wisconsin and when he joined him on a trip to California.

Doe claims the archdiocese was negligent in allowing Widera to continue working as a priest in parish schools even after his 1973 conviction.

He says the abuse he suffered from 1969 to 1976 could have stopped if church officials had stopped transferring Widera between parishes.

The ombudsman's notes also say:

-Because church officials never notified authorities about more reports of abuse, Widera was cleared after his three-year probation period;

-The same day the archdiocese was informed that Widera had "an incident" with an 11-year-old boy in Delavan, Widera agreed to leave and was told to tell parishioners he was going on vacation;

-Another church leader, identified as Paul in the notes, was concerned about transferring Widera: "Paul would have problem in conscience to reassign Siegfried - When? and should they really - in view of Widera's record???";

-Archbishop Rembert Weakland contacted the Bishop of Orange to get him a new assignment there.

Widera was charged with 42 counts of child molestation in California and Wisconsin when he leapt to his death from a hotel balcony in Mexico in May 2003.

In a written statement Thursday, archdiocese spokeswoman Nina Kohl said Archbishop Timothy Dolan "is always open to hearing from victims/survivors and others regarding any concern or issue they may have" regarding abuse as minors by archdiocesan clergy.

She said the archdiocese is continuing to provide counseling and other resources to victims.

Peter Isely, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called Wisconsin "the shame of the nation," for not allowing victims' civil lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

"Wisconsin is the safest place in the nation for pedophile clergy," he said.

He said if a judge agrees to hear the case filed Thursday, it would set a new precedent for victims to seek justice in Wisconsin courts. But even if the case is thrown out, he said he is hopeful that legislators this fall will introduce a bill that would give sexual abuse victims a one-year window to sue religious organizations for past abuse.