Archdiocese prepares for return to court

Posted back on October 28, 2008, at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website, the word "return" if taken literally would mean Circuit Court, not Bankruptcy Court. The current cases against our Archdiocese allege a kind of fraud, and the statute of limitations does not begin to run on a fraud claim until the fraud is discovered. Our Archdiocese's position is the passage of decades makes it unfairly difficult to defend these claims. While one of its lawyers is quoted, it is not clear if this has been asserted as a defense in the pending cases, or is only for public relations.

Also quoted is Barbara Anne Cusack, chancellor of the Archdiocese.

Cusack also said that there are implications about how abuse is viewed by church leaders and mental health professionals today versus when the abuse occurred years ago.

“It’s very easy to take today’s understanding of child abuse and to superimpose it on mentalities of 40 years ago,” she said. “I don’t think anyone 40 years ago thought it was okay, but they did not understand the impact, did not understand the psychology; it was considered a moral failing.”

Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki claimed it was 50 years ago, see Carrying the Cross in a Litigious Culture. So up until 40 or 50 years ago bishops thought of priests molesting children as practically a victimless crime?

Suppose 40 or 50 years ago there was a published report that Catholic bishops thought priests molesting children had only limited psychological impact on the children. I say it would have been denounced as an anti-Catholic slander. Chancellor Cusack says it would have been acknowledged as policy.