Very tough times in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee these days.
Over the past few months, the Archdiocese has unveiled  initiatives designed to build the faith of people of the diocese, as well as invigorate institutions and provide for the future of those insitutions:
The Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign
Vision: 21st Century Planning
Living our Faith: A Love Beyond Belief. Act on it.
(The last includes a weekly television show featuring Archbishop Dolan, viewable online)
Unfortunately, but inevitably, these efforts will take a backseat this week to bad news on another front: the unsealing of court records related to abuse cases and the price being paid by the people of the Archdiocese for clerical sexual abuse.
Earlier this week, the Archdiocese published  documents on its website in anticipation of the unsealing of records. From Archbishop Dolan’s letter:

For example, you’ll remember in summer of 2006, I told you about lawsuits facing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for sexual abuse cases involving former priests Siegfried Widera and Franklyn Becker, and the pending financial consequences of those lawsuits. Those ten cases in California were settled in a multi-million dollar agreement, all of which I made public.
In July of 2007, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down a decision directing that cases alleging fraud by the archdiocese about sexual abuse by two accused priests of the archdiocese could proceed, even though the events were 20-to-40-years old.
Those cases have now been returned to the trial judges to go forward through normal court procedures, and we can expect to hear a lot about them. In addition, since July 2007, two other cases have been brought against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, alleging sexual abuse in Wisconsin by a different priest, Bruce MacArthur. While not a priest of our Archdiocese of Milwaukee, he did serve here for several years.
During the next weeks, the records of these three accused priests will be part of court proceedings, and we can expect they will be given to the media. Thus, I am sending you this newsletter to let you know of the sordid information that will be forthcoming. As you have often told me: “Archbishop, when there is bad news coming, we’d prefer to hear it from you.” Well, as you will see, this news is nauseating.
There are three priests accused of wrongdoing. None of these three accused individuals are now serving as priests within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, nor have they done so for many years.
The accused are Siegfried Widera, Bruce MacArthur and Franklyn Becker. Widera is dead; MacArthur, 84, is aged and residing in a controlled nursing home; and Becker was laicized in 2004 and expelled from ministry. I mentioned these three at our four recent meetings regarding the “state of the archdiocese.”
However, I want to talk specifically about the case involving Franklyn Becker. As I said, Becker was permanently removed from the priesthood at my request in 2004. Although there could be various explanations for all the decisions that were made or not made, at the end of the day, you will see, I have to admit, these decisions are a particularly ugly example of how the Church made some dreadful mistakes in its handling of these cases. The reports about this ex-priest are very troubling.
Some might argue that since both doctors and civil officials made the same mistakes by recommending reassignments, transfers, or “fresh starts,” that the Church should not be held accountable for the decisions made 20 or 30 years ago. Some would say that the Church was simply following the “praxis” of the time, considering the circumstances, the body of knowledge then available to us, and the recommendations that were presented, suggesting offenders could be rehabilitated, moved, and reassigned.
This might all be true, but I need to say that our faith tells us that our Church must acknowledge that poor decisions were made, regardless of how these decisions were reached. And, the Church’s decisions about Becker were badly misguided.

Today’s Milwaukee Journal conveys bad finanacial news. One of the measures that was going to be taken to fund settlements in these cases was the sale of the Cousins Center – once a minor seminary, then turned into use for Archdiocesan office. The sale has fallen through:

When the California lawsuits were settled, it appeared that the archdiocese had avoided bankruptcy. But the Wisconsin suits may lead to reconsideration of that because, except for the Cousins Center, the archdiocese has sold most of its property and does not have reserves, Topczewski said.
“At some point, if we have judgments and we are unable to have the assets to cover them, that (bankruptcy) is going to be one option that’s looked at,” Topczewski said.
In addition, a bill is pending in the state Legislature that would create a limited time period in which any victims of childhood sexual abuse by clergy could file civil suits against denominations no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Dolan has said passage of the bill also would raise the possibility of bankruptcy, Topczewski said.

I’m interested in watching the coverage of this awful situation, the fruit of sinful behavior of clerics, ignored and covered up by the hierarchy (and at times,  law enforcement as well).  Assuming that he’s still in good shape (he’s near 80 now) I’d think that Archbishop Weakland  would be a go-to source for articles on this crisis.
Wouldn’t you?