You know, Jim, I don't know anybody who "doubts the facts of these crimes." The disagreement is about how or whether such crimes can be prevented, and about the extent of culpability of church leaders who employed molesting priests. In many ways, it seemed that many dioceses, including Milwaukee, took extensive efforts beginning in the 1960s to root out seminarians who were potential molesters, and to provide long-term, inpatient psychiatric treatment to priests who had been accused of molestation. The trouble is, the screening and the treatment didn't work. Treatment programs were abandoned in the US in the 1990s, and most dioceses set up zero-tolerance policies. Priests who were accused, were suspended immediately and reported to the police. You will notice that there was a dramatic drop in priest molestation cases beginning in the 1990s. The zero-tolerance policies became uniform and nationwide in the U.S. in 2002.

You mentioned the Milwaukee priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, director of St. John's School for the Deaf. I didn't hear anything about occurrences there until a year or two ago. However, in 1962-63, I attended school in the seminary building next door to the school for the deaf. I never, ever saw anybody outside on the grounds of that school, and I sometimes wondered why that was. I mean, you'd think they would go outside to play or something. There was always activity on the seminary campus, and it did seem a bit spooky that there was no human activity at all on the grounds of the school for the deaf.

I knew a girl from Montana who moved to Milwaukee when her brother went to the school for the deaf, but she didn't say anything about any problems there.

There were several Fr. Murphys among the 600-some priests in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. I knew a few Murphys among the many dozens of priests I knew, but don't think I ever met Fr. Lawrence Murphy. I think child molesters can try to make themselves invisible. I knew the priests in the parish church across the street - why didn't I know the priest who ran the school right next door? Why didn't I ever see a living soul on the grounds of that school?

-Joe-