Records involving at least one sex-offender priest were contained in Milwaukee Archdiocese secret archives, a new document shows, throwing doubt on testimony by former Archbishop Rembert Weakland who had dismissed the notion in a deposition. "I've heard about it, but I've never seen those files, and I don't know if the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has such things," Weakland said in response to a question about "sub secreto or confidential files", the Journal-Sentinel reports.
That response appears to contradict earlier testimony by Weakland in a 1993 deposition in which he acknowledged the existence of such files and newly released archdiocesan documents - including one addressed to Weakland - that reference the archives, the paper says.
The files are at the center of several civil fraud cases pending against the Milwaukee archdiocese, which is accused of knowingly transferring sex-offender priests to new posts, where they continued to molest children.
Documents referencing the secret archives were released as part of a new case involving the late Fr Lawrence Murphy, who is believed to have molested as many as 200 boys at St. John's School for the Deaf between 1950 and 1974, the Journal-Sentinel says.
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