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In a long-awaited court motion to be heard on Thursday in federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee, 570 victims/survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault by Catholic clergy and other church personnel will petition Judge Susan V. Kelley to release the sealed testimony of the two former Milwaukee bishops most responsible for decades of concealing and transferring known offender priests, Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Bishop Richard Sklba.

The motion, supported by the Creditors Committee appointed by Kelley, also will ask to unseal all evidence in the 570 claims, once appropriate redactions have been made. Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki has instructed his lawyers to oppose the motion. The archdiocese consistently wants to withhold this information.

For Catholics, confessing sin is good for the soul. Listecki acknowledged as much in a special clergy abuse Mass of Atonement last week. But confession in the Catholic Church requires penance, which is an action of justice that attempts to repair the harm. In other words, we cannot move from confession to healing without doing penance, and that includes doing justice and being truthful.

Regarding clergy sexual abuse cases, Catholic Church leaders in Milwaukee and throughout the country seem to sidestep the need for substantial and difficult penance as a necessary ingredient for healing and peace.

Last week, Listecki claimed his principle objection to the release is that, although he couldn't explain how, it would result in the identification of victims' names and identities.

Nothing could be further from the truth. On this point, all parties involved in the bankruptcy agree: Not a single victim's name or identity will ever be made public, unless the survivor chooses to do so.

The language in Thursday's court petition is crystal clear: "The motion seeks to have all information regarding survivors' identities redacted and all information regarding alleged abusers who have not yet been publically identified redacted as well." In every church bankruptcy, including the most recent in the diocese in Wilmington, Del., all victims' names and identities were removed from documents before release. And, in every court-ordered release of documents from the Milwaukee Archdiocese to date - including the abuse files of the late Father Lawrence Murphy, the late Father Siegfried Widera, Father Bruce McArthur and Franklyn Becker - all victim names and identities were redacted. No harm resulted.

Finally, giving public notice of the names and crimes of the over 100 newly alleged offenders in the bankruptcy files, once substantiated, also can be easily accomplished without revealing the identities of victims. The archdiocese already has done so, publishing on the website of the archdiocese the names of 44 priests against whom there is a substantiated allegation of a sexual abuse of a minor. The archdiocese does not reveal the names of victims in these cases.

It is good that Listecki celebrated a Mass of Atonement as April, Child Abuse Prevention Month, begins. But it would be even better if the archbishop would courageously lead the church in the revelation of the complete truth regarding the clergy sexual abuse crisis, hold responsible those who failed to protect children and let parents know which priests and other church ministers sexually assaulted children.

Without a doubt, doing so really would be celebrating trust and faith in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

The authors:
Peter Isely is the Midwest director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Father James Connell is the pastor of two Catholic parishes in Sheboygan.

In addition to determining whether the Stockton Diocese is liable in handling sexual abuse allegations during the past four decades, the jury will determine how much in damages to award the plaintiff.

In testimony Thursday afternoon, Sister Barbara Thiella, the diocese chancellor, said that the diocese was notified in 2003 that Kelly may have engaged in "improper behavior."

When asked if she reported the information to law enforcement, Thiella said she didn't because Kelly engaged in what diocese officials considered to be immature acts, but not sexual misconduct

On Wednesday, a Cobb County school board voted to immediately fire two staffers at Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs, GA. The two - principal Jerry Dority and counselor Yatta Collins – lost their jobs because they delayed reporting suspected child abuse. According to police reports, when the administrators were told about abuse of a student at the hands of her step-father, instead of immediately calling authorities, they told the girl‘s mother to take her in for psychiatric evaluations. Collins and Dority then waited several days before bringing the allegations to police, and did so only after the girl missed two days of school.

SNAP is applauding the school board for taking decisive action in condemning this delay. The group also believes far more cases like this are happening and wants the Georgia Department of Education to remind school staff of their legal and moral obligation to quickly call police when crimes against kids are suspected. SNAP also wants law enforcement to more aggressively investigate and prosecute such crimes vigorously.

BOSTON (Reuters) –

A small Massachusetts Roman Catholic college rescinded its invitation to Vicki Kennedy to speak at its graduation ceremony this spring, saying the local bishop objected to honoring the widow of the liberal lion Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

A spokesman for Worcester Bishop Robert McManus declined to say why exactly he objected to the choice of Kennedy, a member of the most prominent U.S. Catholic family in politics.

“Bishop McManus is acting, he feels, consistently with what all of the U.S. bishops asked colleges or higher institutions to do going back to 2004, that they not honor … Catholics who take a public stance or position on issues contrary to things that the Church is trying to teach,” said Raymond Delisle, a spokesman for the diocese.
Kennedy said she was “disheartened” by the public rebuke.

“I am a lifelong Catholic and my faith is very important to me,” she said in a statement. “I have not met Bishop McManus nor has he been willing to meet with me to discuss his objections.”

Other telling moments from last week:

Most unbelievable witness: He wore a collar. Hands down, it was Bishop Robert Maginnis, former vicar of Montgomery County. Maginnis was the archdiocese administrator who had to deal with Father Edward DePaoli, the priest who collected kiddie porn in his rectory bedroom. The priest's porno stash was raided in 1985 by the feds. If that happened on your watch, you would think it would stand out in your memory

Yet the feds raiding the rectory and finding $15,000 worth of kiddie porn under the priest's bed didn't seem to make much of an impression on Bishop Maginnis.

"I just don't remember," he told the prosecutor.

The prosecutor was so incredulous he kept asking the bishop why he couldn't recall such a scandalous incident.

"If I did remember it, I'd tell you that I remembered it," the bishop said dismissively.

The bishop was also the guy who was presiding over the county when Sister Joan Scary got canned in 1996 by the pastor of Father DePaoli's new church, after she got upset that the priest was still receiving porno at his new church rectory. Sister Joan made the mistake of complaining about Father DePaoli to the pastor of Father DePaoli's new parish, Father James Gormley, whom, she said, told her to shut up or "get the hell out."Sister Joan also sent an anonymous letter of complaint to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

Bishop Maginnis sided with Pastor Gormley, saying in a 1996 letter to the archdiocese that the nun was aware of Father DePaoli's "past problems" and she was using the absence of the pastor, who was getting a knee replaced, "stir up some conflict" to "cast doubt on Father DePaoli's credibility."

But try as it might to delve into the controversy, all Blessington could get out of the witness was: "Sister was uncomfortable with Father." When pressed for more details, the bishop told the prosecutor, "I don't recall."

PHILADELPHIA, PA (AP) -

An aide to Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese is being asked to testify in a clergy-abuse case.

According to the Associated Press, Philadelphia prosecutors say they're having trouble getting Monsignor Kevin Quirk to testify in the criminal court case of Rev. James Brennan who faces sexual-assault charges. Quirk was a judge at the church's in-house trial of that case.

Quirk had agreed to testify, but said he had to notify Bransfield. The report states that since then, the process has stalled.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina has agreed to take it up with court officials in Wheeling.

Stick with 7 News as we continue to follow this developing story for you.