Exiled Pedophile Priest May Have Continued Abuse

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

By SUSAN SAULNY and LAURIE GOODSTEIN

BOULDER JUNCTION, Wis. — The modest clapboard cottage projects a sense of simple rural peace, nestled amid tall pines on quiet Trout Lake. The house, in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, had been in the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy’s family for years, his getaway in the summer months and his sanctuary where he was sent to retire in 1974, at age 48, after victims of sexual abuse demanded he be removed from work at a school for the deaf near Milwaukee.

But Father Murphy’s time around Boulder Junction was not so secluded, according to recent interviews with people who live in the area and Roman Catholic Church documents.

Those interviews and documents suggested that Father Murphy, who is accused of molesting as many as 200 boys at the school near Milwaukee, also used his family’s lakefront cottage as a lure in his sexual advances, bringing youths from the school into his home beginning at least in the early 1960s.

What has recently come to light in fresh documents and interviews is that he was in the company of boys not only from the Milwaukee area but in the Northwoods region. Two in the area have accused Father Murphy of abuse, one at the isolated family cottage and the other, as late as 1978, at a youth detention center near Boulder Junction.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/03wisconsin.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043

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# Jeffrey Phelps for The New York Times

Donald Marshall, 45, of West Allis, Wis., said last week in an interview that Father Murphy had molested him at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys, a detention center near Boulder Junction.

[Siwsan]

1. An abuser was transferred to my Mom's parish

The pastor knew this guy's history, and made up a story about why he had to take a part time job selling cars - claimed he had some debts to pay off. Now we realize it was probably to earn hush money. Everyone always commented about how every time they saw him, he was surrounded by kids. They also claim nothing happened at their parish, but I'll never believe it. All the while, the pastor stood by and did/said nothing.

The abuser was, eventually, transferred to another parish and made head pastor, but was busted and sent to prison. He's out, now, has left the priesthood, and married.