In the summer of 1998, acting as judicial vicar he ordered Fr. Murphy to be present at a deposition at the Milwaukee chancery. A letter from the clergyman’s doctor said he was in frail health and could not travel far. The priest died of natural causes a week later.
Fr. Brundage also addressed the case’s documentation and recent reports about it in his Catholic Anchor article.
An August 19 letter from Archbishop Weakland to then-secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone stated that the Milwaukee archbishop had instructed Fr. Brundage to “abate the proceedings” against the accused priest.
“Father Murphy, however, died two days later and the fact is that on the day that Father Murphy died, he was still the defendant in a church criminal trial. No one seems to be aware of this,” the priest wrote in the Catholic Anchor.
Had he been asked to abate the trial, Fr. Brundage said he “most certainly” would have insisted on appeal to the supreme court of the Church or to Pope John Paul II if necessary.
Discussing the role of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Fr. Brundage said he had “no reason to believe that he was involved at all.”
“Placing this matter at his doorstep is a huge leap of logic and information,” he continued.
Fr. Brundage added that media reports have attributed to him statements from the documents which were not in his handwriting, saying their source was “unknown” to him.
“Discerning truth takes time and it is apparent that the New York Times, the Associated Press and others did not take the time to get the facts correct,” he charged.
Citing his experience as a volunteer prison chaplain in Alaska, Fr. Brundage offered a blistering profile of convicted sexual abusers and the priests who have committed “such grievous actions”:
“They tend to be very smart and manipulative. They tend to be well liked and charming. They tend to have one aim in life — to satisfy their hunger. Most are highly narcissistic and do not see the harm that they have caused. They view the children they have abused not as people but as objects. They rarely show remorse and moreover, sometimes portray themselves as the victims.
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“They are, in short, dangerous people and should never be trusted again.”
From his interviews with victims, he realized that the “disease” of abuse is “virulent and easily transmitted to others.”
“I heard stories of distorted lives, sexualities diminished or expunged. These were the darkest days of my own priesthood, having been ordained less than 10 years at the time.”
He declared abuse to be “a form of emotional and spiritual homicide.”
Fr. Brundage said that Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have taken “extraordinary steps” to ensure the safety of children and the vulnerable. In his present home, the Archdiocese of Anchorage, he reported that almost every public bathroom in parishes has a sign asking if a person has been abused by anyone in the church and a phone number is given to report abuse. Almost all church workers are required to take yearly classes on ensuring a safe environment.
“I am not sure what more the Church can do,” he said.