The lawsuit contends that Benedict, then Cardinal
Evidence made public as part of the lawsuit includes two letters the victim — identified in court filings as
The lawsuit is the first of its kind to ask the court to release the names and files maintained by
The
The
The Milwaukee Archdiocese, and local police and prosecutors, have known of the allegations against Murphy since at least the 1970s, though victims say the archdiocese knew as early as the 1950s.
Victims met separately with then Archbishop Rembert Weakland and the
The church initially said Murphy was too valuable to
Retired District Attorney
Weakland wrote to Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1996 in an effort to have Murphy laicized, or removed from the priesthood.
Documents show Ratzinger’s deputy at first endorsed a canon trial and then discouraged it, citing Murphy’s age and ill health. Murphy died in 1998, just days after Weakland and the judge in the canon trial drafted letters suggesting they had or intended to halt the case. However, it was not officially dismissed until after Murphy’s death.