Wisconsin Catholics upset over criticism from Vatican

MILWAUKEE – A man who says he was among some 200 deaf boys allegedly molested by a priest in Wisconsin said Monday the Vatican’s defensive responses to revelations about the case make him feel like he did when he was 12, when no one would listen to him about the abuse.

Arthur Budzinski, 61, said at a news conference outside the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist that Pope Benedict XVI is trying to protect himself against criticism of his handling of the Wisconsin case against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. Murphy was accused of molesting some 200 boys at the St. John’s School for the Deaf outside Milwaukee from 1950-1975. He was never defrocked.

“It’s 2010. I’m not trying to hurt the pope,” Budzinski said. “The pope should do something. I’m just telling my story. That’s all I’m doing,” said Budzinski, whose 26-year-old daughter Gigi Budzinski interpreted his sign language.

The Vatican newspaper recently said there was a “clear and despicable intention” to strike at Benedict “at any cost.” Several victims held signs at the Monday news conference that read “Stop attacking us!” and “I’m not despicable.”

Top Roman Catholic officials are rubbing salt “into the already deep wounds of those who have been victimized and disillusioned by the Catholic Church” by criticizing those speaking out, said Mary Guentner, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Guentner, who says she was abused by a nun in a different school, said victims should be praised, thanked and welcomed but instead have been vilified, mischaracterized and insulted for speaking out.

“It’s ludicrous to claim that these hundreds of once-trusting, devout Catholics are somehow conspiring to hurt the world’s most powerful religious figure,” she said.

Recently released documents showed a Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger halted a church trial against Murphy. Ratzinger’s deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, shut the process down.