{"id":5036,"date":"2010-09-23T17:44:19","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T21:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=5036"},"modified":"2025-09-25T19:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:23:09","slug":"deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Deaf victim of sex abuse is suing pope, and going public with his story for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Bronstein
\nCNN Special Investigations Unit<\/strong><\/p>\n

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin \u2013 Terry Kohut has kept a dark secret for nearly 50 years. Now he is breaking his silence, becoming a key figure in the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the growing controversy over what Pope Benedict XVI did about it.<\/p>\n

When Kohut was barely a teen, and for years afterward, he says, he was sexually molested and assaulted by the headmaster and priest of the school where he lived, St. John\u2019s School for the Deaf, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What occurred there is one of the most notorious cases of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Kohut was not alone. From 1950 to 1974 the headmaster of St. Johns, Father Lawrence C. Murphy, raped and molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to court and church documents.<\/p>\n

Kohut has now filed the first sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican actually naming Pope Benedict, previously known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as a defendant.
\nRatzinger was once head of the Vatican\u2019s powerful CDF, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged in certain circumstances with investigating the sexual abuse of minors by priests. And though church records show the abuse by Father Murphy was brought to the attention of Ratzinger and the CDF years ago, a church trial against the headmaster was stopped and he was allowed to remain a priest.<\/p>\n

The Vatican\u2019s \u201cpolicy of secrecy\u201d in abuse cases, and its \u201cdirectives to conceal the sexual abuse of children\u201d by priests, the lawsuit says, helped bring about the abuse of Kohut and others by Father Murphy.<\/p>\n

Kohut has never before gone public or spoken about what Father Murphy did to him. He has remained anonymous in the suit, listed only as \u201cJohn Doe 16,\u201d one of dozens of men alleging abuse.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Kohut, 60, spoke with his hands and through an interpreter, describing how the abuse by Father Murphy started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into his office, the door was closed,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Father Murphy said, \u2018Take your pants down. And so I did\u2026 you know, he was always in his black attire with a white collar, and you know \u2026 I was questioning why he would ask me to do that. Here he is, a priest, and \u2013 I have to obey him. And he proceeded to touch me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened to Kohut and the other deaf boys -\u2013 and the handling of the Murphy case by Ratzinger\u2019s office – are central issues in a widening examination of the church\u2019s role in covering up sexual abuse by priests. Did that approach reach as high as the man who would become the pope? Click here<\/a> to continue reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Bronstein CNN Special…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,179],"tags":[2936,2914,904,953],"class_list":["post-5036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children-at-risk","category-child-abuse","tag-child-abuse","tag-children-at-risk","tag-sex-abuse","tag-child-sex-abuse","wpcat-17-id","wpcat-179-id"],"yoast_head":"\nDeaf victim of sex abuse is suing pope, and going public with his story for the first time - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deaf victim of sex abuse is suing pope, and going public with his story for the first time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Scott Bronstein CNN Special...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-23T21:44:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-26T02:23:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Miscellaneous News Source\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miscellaneous News Source\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Miscellaneous News Source\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9fdbcbd48da5f29bb452804f6cac87fd\"},\"headline\":\"Deaf victim of sex abuse is suing pope, and going public with his story for the first time\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-23T21:44:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-26T02:23:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":465,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Child Abuse\",\"CHILDREN AT RISK!\",\"sex abuse\",\"child sex abuse\"],\"articleSection\":[\"CHILDREN AT RISK!\",\"Child Abuse\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/deaf-victim-of-sex-abuse-is-suing-pope-and-going-public-with-his-story-for-the-first-time\\\/\",\"name\":\"Deaf victim of sex abuse is suing pope, and going public with his story for the first time - 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