Priest Was Welcomed Despite ‘Moral Problem’

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange this week admitted it welcomed a Milwaukee priest into its ranks despite a warning from his superior that he had a “moral problem having to do with a boy in school.”

Father Sigfried Widera was accepted into the Diocese of Orange in 1976 though he was undergoing counseling for still-unspecified priestly misconduct. In 1985, other allegations of sexual misconduct with children surfaced, and Widera was fired.

Church officials said they don’t know when, if ever, the 1985 accusations were settled.

The allegation emerged Saturday when a 32-year-old man filed a report with the Anaheim Police Department saying he was sexually abused by Widera after the priest arrived in Orange County.

Neither Widera nor the alleged victim could be reached for comment Thursday.

Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown said in a written statement that Widera would not have been accepted if current standards had been applied. “While the acceptance of a priest undergoing treatment was considered acceptable then, it is not today, and I regret any pain that may have been caused by accepting Father Widera in 1976.”

Diocesan officials said that when Widera was transferred, the archbishop of Milwaukee, William Cousins, told colleague William Johnson, then the bishop of Orange, that the priest posed “no great risk” to children despite his past problem. Johnson and Cousins are deceased.

When new accusations surfaced in 1985, Johnson stripped Widera of his duties, effectively ending his career as a priest.

Widera also was sent to a treatment program in New Mexico, church officials said.