The Milwaukee Post

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has suggested he may initi- ate a broad investigation into the decades of mishandling cases by the Milwaukee Archdiocese of sexual misconduct by priests. A similar statewide investigation in Pennsylvania last year reopened the deep and self-inflicted wound in the Church caused by its years of looking the other way, or even downright enabling, abusive priests. But if Chisholm is going to investi- gate the Church's role in these cases, he also needs to investigate the role of his own office in the same scandal. It has been widely reported that longtime former Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann routinely advised the Milwaukee Church leaders on the handling of cases of misconduct by priests and often urged taking no action. McCann's office virtually never prosecuted any of these cases nor did McCann make it a practice to notify police agencies. John Chisholm is Mike McCann's protégé. When McCann retired after decades as DA, he hand-picked Chisholm to succeed him over the many other longtime assistants and deputies in his office. If Chisholm is planning to start a John Doe investigation and conduct a major probe into the years of covering up, he needs to include his own office and McCann in the investigation. Anything other than that would be rank hypocrisy, selective pros- ecution and, essentially, engaging in a new cover-up in order to protect the district attorney's own predecessor and friend. There was a lot of covering up and look- ing the other way with these cases of abu- sive priests. It certainly started with the church itself but, in Milwaukee, it didn't end there. Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel functioned as enabler of the long whitewash. If all of this is to be dug up again, let's dig up everything. Sanctimonious, holier-than-thou proclama- tions from individuals and institutions that blew this as badly as the Church would be as outrageous as the original cover-ups. It's easy to understand how the Church disgraced itself. Everybody looked the other way at things like this in the '60s, '70s and even '80s. People didn't call cops. They whis- pered. The Church itself, in a misguided application of the teaching of forgiveness, naively thought that pedophiliac perverts would change their ways if shipped from Sheboygan to somewhere else. In Milwaukee, the archbishop himself was fighting his own demons. Rembert Weakland was being blackmailed by a for- mer seminarian for his inappropriate behavior. Weakland even used church funds to pay for the man's silence. It's not surpris- ing that Weakland, caught in his own mess, was understanding of other priests. Yet when Weakland was caught and finally fessed up, his own congregation applauded him at St. John's Cathedral. This is the way it was. Everyone wanted to forgive and FOR- GET. This was a disaster. It was also morally depraved. And the Church is paying for it again and again and again. Chisholm may feel a need to once again investigate the Church for this nightmarish misconduct but, if he does, he needs to look at ALL of the enablers. Stories by Marie Rhode in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a report in Milwaukee Magazine and documents unearthed in a California court case indicate former D.A. McCann would frequently counsel Weakland on cases of abuse and generally urged keeping an eye on the priest and leav- ing things alone if there weren't new offens- es. McCann also advised Weakland on han- dling his own blackmail case. McCann is a devout Roman Catholic and, like church officials, handled these things horribly. To think that many cases of abuse were known about by the top prosecutor in Milwaukee who kept them hidden from view is, in ret- rospect, astonishing. McCann was undeni- ably well-intentioned. But likely so were many Church leaders. Should a district attorney sworn to enforce the law be given a pass that is not given to bishops? And then there's the Journal Sentinel, currently trying to mount a high horse by reporting on Chisholm's new plans to re- investigate. But when reporter Rhode was digging into all of this in the 1990s, her own paper pulled her off the story! Yes, the Journal Sentinel was doing its own cover- up. Milwaukee magazine and others have reported that former Editor Mary Jo Meisner, responding to a request from Church officials, pulled reporter Rhode off the priest abuse story in 1995. The newspaper also chose to look the other way. EVERYBODY was looking the other way. If we are going to re-litigate that deliberate "See No Evil" response, the new probe ought to focus on the whole gang that was complicit. That's certainly former Archbishop Weakland and perhaps others in the church hierarchy in Wisconsin. But it is also McCann. It is the Journal Sentinel that could have exposed this long before we finally learned about it. How many other reporters got tips that they ignored during this time? What about police agencies? Were allegations reported to them and buried because of the dirty laundry that would have been exposed? Will that be looked into? I suspect not. I suspect we still don't want to know just how many people couldn't fig- ure out that child-molesting perverts need- ed to be exposed before they did it again and again. Hindsight is 20/20 and we certainly know now that forgiveness and covering up were both morally and strategically disas- trous decisions. But the leadership of the Church had a lot of help in its botching of these cases. Does Chisholm want to dig into his own office's dirty laundry? Will the current lead- ers of the Journal Sentinel open up about why they aided the cover-up by exiling a reporter who was getting close to the truth? If not, he ought not reopen this at all. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). 8 • Milwaukee County Post • February 1, 2019 MARK BELLING OPINION Last week's question What's your view on the renaming of the Milwaukee Brewers' Miller Park after the 2020 season and Wisconsin- based American Family win- ning the naming rights? Or, what do you think of the Republican tax cut plan and Tony Evers' opposition, saying his version is sustainable? (Choose one.) I think we baseball fans are interest- ed in an exciting season with a winning team and a wonderful manager like Craig Counsell. American Family Insurance is a good representative for the sport enjoyed by millions of American families every summer. Let's have a good, exciting baseball season. — Dorothy Seidl Milwaukee *** Open up your wallets, Wisconsin, because it's Tony Evers time. The Republican plan isn't acceptable to Governor Evers because his tax plan isn't for cuts. Evers wants to raise taxes on everyone and everything on the state, city, county, suburban, school and many more levels. I hope all you Democrats and liberals are happy now because Tony Evers is giving away the store with all the freebies for illegals. Plus, the people of Wisconsin are pay- ing for it. — Arthur Schulz Oak Creek Jan. 18 question What do you think is the greatest problem facing this country going forward in our new year? Our biggest problem today is "truth decay." Our president sets the tone by his frequent mouthing of untruths, mis- information and denials. Pundits, other politicians, social media users and even ordinary voters have come to accept this as our new normal and follow suit. As a society we are sliding down a slippery slope of confusion and unac- countability. We are in a bad place, but the truth can still set us free if we pledge to accept nothing less. — Sandy Sue Szanderek Bay View *** Editor's note: Thank you, readers, for responding to the question of the week and writing letters to the editor over the years. They were forums for which you could engage with the Milwaukee County Post staff and other readers. I always looked forward to seeing your emails and hearing your voicemail mes- sages over the past four years, which were a part of the Post's nearly 25-year history. Your input helped make the Post your paper. Thanks again for your support and inter- est. Dan Muckelbauer Milwaukee County Post editor Question of the week STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE Local Catholic cover-up had lots of enablers New Chisholm probe also needs to focus on his own predecessor

• Cover