A 91-year-old former teacher at St. John’s School for the Deaf delivered the first reading at the concluding Mass for the school’s 150th anniversary celebration weekend, held at Mater Christi Chapel at the Mary Mother of the Church Pastoral Center.
A “hidden jewel” in the history of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — that’s how Fr. Christopher Klusman thinks of St. John’s School for the Deaf.
As the director of the Deaf Apostolate, it’s Fr. Klusman’s job to ensure that Deaf Catholics are given the opportunity to be recognized and served by their parishes, schools and the archdiocese as a whole.
St. John’s School for the Deaf was founded in 1876 and educated hundreds of Deaf students from preschool through high school before its closure in 1983. Fr. Klusman has always felt strongly that St. John’s legacy of education and inclusion “needs to be shared and valued.”
But for too long, a shadow has stretched across the story of St. John’s. When alumni gathered in the past, there was joy — but there was pain, too.
As the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding neared, organizers of the official celebration wanted this reunion to be different. “My prayers were that we face the elephant in the room,” he said.
“We shared our childhood together.”
The last official reunion of St. John’s students took place in 2016. This special 150th anniversary celebration has been in the works for years, with the planning committee meeting monthly, said Joel Mankowski, class of 1987.
“We stay in frequent contact with one another and often think of ourselves as brothers and sisters,” he said of the alumni community. “We still consider ourselves one large family because we shared so much of our childhood together.”
The committee planned an action-packed weekend for former staff and students who attended from all over the country, representing graduating classes spanning the 1950s through the 1980s, including those who never graduated from the school because of its closure.
The festivities started May 8 at the Mary Mother of the Church Pastoral Center, St. Francis, where alumni toured historical exhibits presented by the Archdiocesan Archives and the Deaf Apostolate. Exhibits included school uniforms, sports memorabilia, liturgical items, photos, yearbooks and even dining ware.
The next day, alumni and staff toured their old school building, now home to Deer Creek Intermediate School, and school historian Mark Hansen, author of a new book about the school, presented a 3D recreation of St. John’s campus in its heyday. The day wrapped up with a St. John’s-themed trivia night at Pulaski Inn, Cudahy. On Sunday, they returned to the MMCPC for Mass with Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob in the Mater Christi chapel.
For the Deaf victim community, a particularly significant moment of the weekend took place Saturday morning, with a ceremony that acknowledged the pain and injustice borne by this community, and honored the strength of those advocates who spoke out — even when no one was listening.
“We as the Church had failed”
The Deaf community had significant input into the wording of the sign indicating the future home of the memorial at Sacred Heart Cemetery in St. Francis.
Fr. Lawrence Murphy came to work at St. John’s School for the Deaf in 1950. When reports of Fr. Murphy’s sexual abuse of students reached archdiocesan and civil authorities in 1973, they were repeatedly discounted and dismissed. Though he was removed from his position at St. John’s in 1974, Fr. Murphy was relocated to ministry in northern Wisconsin, and he was never made to face canonical or criminal penalties before his death in 1998.
The exact number of his victims cannot be known, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds.
Sofia Thorn, Director of Victim Services and Victim Assistance Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, wanted to honor the decades-long advocacy of these victim/survivors of Fr. Murphy’s abuse. “It was their resilience,” she said, “which forced the institutional Church to reckon with its mishandling of clergy sexual abuse.”
“I knew that we as the Church had failed the Deaf community,” she said.
Together with Fr. Klusman, Mankowski and the rest of the planning committee, they brought a suggestion to the Deaf victim community.
A granite monument memorializing the courage and resilience of these victim/survivors will be installed at Sacred Heart Cemetery in St. Francis in a few months— a location chosen because the former St. John’s site is no longer under archdiocesan purview, and because a cemetery would provide privacy and solitude for visitors.
The monument will depict Christ shepherding children, a recreation of a statue that once graced the grounds of St. John’s. A marker has been placed to indicate where the memorial will be, and it was officially unveiled for the St. John’s alumni May 9.
“Joel, and the planning committee, including Fr. Klusman, worked very hard to ensure victim/survivors approved, that the language (on the monument) in English represented the Deaf victim community’s words,” she said. “There is so much pain, hurt and distrust … and as representatives of the Church that harmed them, we needed to respect what they desired.”
The community ultimately approved.
Archbishop Grob participated in the ceremony and apologized on behalf of the Church, both in English and in American Sign Language. His presence meant a great deal to the community, said Fr. Klusman. “He is a shepherd who showed great compassion to the Deaf flock gathered there.”
“We believe the monument represents abuse survivors and their advocates and serves as a lasting reminder to future generations that such abuses must never happen again,” said Mankowski. “While it honors survivors connected to St. John’s, its message extends to all abuse survivors around the world. The monument provides a place for reflection, remembrance and healing. Our hope is that it will inspire a more compassionate and just future for humanity.”
Fr. Christopher Klusman, left, was joined by Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob on Saturday, May 9, at Sacred Heart Cemetery for a memorial ceremony in honor of the advocates and victim/survivors of sexual abuse at St. John’s School for the Deaf.
