Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Previous governor acted to assist child-raping priest in Wisconsin

Predator priest, whose strange case revealed how deep the reach of hierarchy in political world, scheduled for trial
WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director — CONTACT: 414.429.7259/

State of Wisconsin criminal justice officials are to be commended for their persistence in keeping behind bars Fr. Norbert Maday, whose strange case illustrates how deep the reach the catholic hierarchy has in the political world but also, fortunately, how civil and criminal law, when fully and aggressively used, are keeping children safe. ...

Mayday was convicted in the mid 1990s’ for bringing grade school children from his Chicago parish to Wisconsin for purposes of sexually assaulting them. At the time, he was also convicted for intimidating a witness, when he threatened to kill a victim’s older brother if he testified. Hardly, in other words, a model priest and citizen.

Yet, that did not stop, in a truly bizarre act of political favoritism, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, in 1997, at the personal request of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, from ordering his legal counsel and state corrections officials to arrange to have the body of Maday’s mother transported from Chicago, across state lines, to the Fox Valley Correctional Institute so the priest could have a private viewing and service before her burial. State law prohibits imprisoned felons from attending funerals, which can be videotaped. So, Thompson brought the body to Mayday.