MILWAUKEE (AP) — New documents released in the case of a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting boys at a school for the deaf show the Vatican was alerted earlier than previously thought.
A letter released Thursday by the attorney in a lawsuit against the Vatican shows that one of the alleged victims wrote to a Vatican official in 1995.
That was two years before the Vatican green-lighted a secret canonical trial against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. Previously, it was thought the Vatican first learned of the allegations in a 1996 letter from the Milwaukee archbishop.
Murphy was accused of molesting at least 200 deaf children from 1950 to 1975. He died in 1998.
The Vatican was studying the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.
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