It was ironic to see Marie Rohde’s byline in a JS story last week reporting that the Milwaukee Archdiocese had long known about the Rev. Siegfried Widera’s sexual abuse of boys. Rohde, you see, had covered the archdiocese for the old Milwaukee Journal, and was getting very close to the story of pedophilia by the priests.
But she was pulled from the beat in early 1995 by then Milwaukee Journal editor Mary JoMeisner. As a Pressroom column by Milwaukee Magazine reported, the archbishop at the time, Rembert Weakland, put pressure on the editors to remove Rohde from the beat.
Seven years later, the Boston Globe did its path-breaking series on abusive clergy in America’s Catholic Church. The series forced the Journal Sentinel to jump belatedly on the issue, but it was not Rohde who was given the assignment.
In retrospect, you can’t help wondering what would have happened if Rohde, who can be a very dogged reporter, had been left to dig for dirt on the archdiocese. Perhaps her newspaper, rather than the Globe, would have gotten all the glory for this scoop.
But the old Journal was not the only institution that seemed protective of the archdiocese. Some reporters at the paper believe longtime Milwaukee District Attorney E. Michael McCann, a devout Catholic, had no interest in prosecuting abusive priests. The district attorney blamed state Supreme Court decisions that made prosecution difficult, but took no interest in trying to change the state law. McCann, moreover, seemed compromised by his close relationship with Weakland. Weakland sought and received private advice from McCann about a sexual relationship that ultimately resulted in an accusation of sexual abuse against the archbishop.
Experts say Wisconsin is unique nationally in its protection of abusive priests. The archdiocese here had to pay damages to victims of Widera in California but was protected from any civil suits for Widera’s abuse of children in Wisconsin.
A Supreme Court decision written on May 23, 1997, by Justice Patrick Crooks, a practicing Catholic, dismissed a civil suit involving clergy abuse. Civil remedies weren’t needed, Crooks suggested, because “a bishop may determine that a wayward priest can be sufficiently reprimanded through counseling and prayer.”
In her dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote: “The First Amendment does not imbue religious organizations with blanket immunity from tort liability…The ‘mercy and forgiveness’ of a religious organization toward known sexually exploitative clergyman does not excuse the organization from responding in damages.”
Attempts to pass state legislation to toughen state laws have also run into a wall. Former Assembly Speaker John Gard “was a big opponent,” notes Peter Isely, Midwest director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Gard, too, is Catholic.
While the current JS editors are more willing to do tough journalism than Meisner was, some reporters note that many of the editors are Catholic and don’t always get excited about stories on clergy abuse.
Isely is optimistic about the chances of getting changes in the state law during this legislative session, now that Gard isn’t around. But in a state where so many powers-that-be are Catholic, any reform may not be easy to achieve.
The Explosion of Ex-Cons
Last week a Journal Sentinel story downplayed the most explosive findings in a new study: a huge increase in ex-prisoners coming back to Milwaukee.
A study by the UW-Milwaukee Employment & Training Institute found the annual number of ex-cons released from state prisons to Milwaukee County has skyrocketed, growing from 2,191 in 1993 to 8,147 in 2005. Over that period of time, 26,772 county residents were released from prison.
That won’t be good for the crime rate in Milwaukee, because, as the study notes, more than two-thirds of ex-cons have historically committed another crime that lands them back in jail.
The significance of this trend was noted in the infamous Time magazine story on Milwaukee in December. “We’re charging the same guys who came through our doors 10 or 20 years ago,” McCann told Time.
Some of this trend may reflect a get-tough-on-drugs policy gone amok. The study found that 44 percent of Hispanics and 38 percent of African-American inmates released had been imprisoned at least in part for drug-related offenses. Prison sentences for drug possession may have exposed petty, nonviolent criminals to a jailhouse environment that can turn them into hard-core thugs.
But whatever the mistakes of the past, the study’s figures underline a huge challenge for the city. About 41 percent of African-American males aged 25 to 34 in Milwaukee have been incarcerated at least once, the study found. The majority of these men lack a high school degree and a valid driver’s license, which makes it difficult to secure a job. The driver’s license problem could be more easily solved, and the ETI study offers excellent recommendations on this for policy makers.
Echoing the study, the JS story emphasized the driver’s license problem. But the alarming statistics on the rise in ex-cons seem much more important. Small wonder Mayor Tom Barrett is getting increasingly worried about containing crime.
Why Doyle Discovered Milwaukee
Businessman and Sunday JS columnist John Torinus wrote a column saluting Gov. Jim Doyle for creating a funding package targeting Milwaukee. “It is hard to discern what changed the posture of the Doyle administration toward metro Milwaukee,” Torinus wrote.
Let me help you out there, John. With Republicans in control of both houses of the legislature last term, Doyle had little chance of getting special help for heavily Democratic Milwaukee. He also had no money to spend and couldn’t propose anything that might have raised taxes, knowing full well this would be turned into a campaign issue in the 2006 race.
This term, Doyle could have lots of money to play with, given the estimated $400 million to be gained from a proposed boost in the cigarette tax. Of course, Doyle will say this tax won’t be used to fund Milwaukee, but money is fungible. With a huge budget getting dollars from all kinds of sources and flowing back to countless programs, it’s not so easy to prove just which pot of money is funding what program.
Torinus’ suggestion that Doyle has suddenly realized that “as metro Milwaukee goes, so goes the state,” is naïve. Doyle always knew, but had no way to deliver help. Even now, passage of this package won’t be easy.
And try critic Ann Christenson’s Dish on Dining.
