Hundreds of pages of just-released documents that the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese compiled over four decades reveal a coverup of pedophilia that involved top church leaders and touched a prominent law-enforcement official.
The documents, which a California court released as part of a $16.65 million settlement of civil lawsuits in that state, paint more than just another graphic story of a priest who sexually abused children: They could be a harbinger of things to come for the church here as victims of abuse press their cases in the courts and the Legislature.
The archdiocese fought to keep sealed the documents, which focus on Franklyn Becker, an archdiocesan priest who has been accused of sexually abusing nine teenage boys in Wisconsin and one in California, the first case dating to just two years after his ordination.
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