Madison, Wis., Mar 7, 2018 / 03:22 pm (CNA).- Fr. Alfred Kunz was a 67-year-old parish priest at St. Michael’s church in the rural town of Dane, Wisconsin.
He recorded radio shows and was known for his love of the traditional Latin Mass, serving as a parish priest for 31 years. He often cooked cod at the local fish fries on Friday nights in an effort to raise money for the parish school.
On March 4, 1998, Fr. Kunz was found dead in a pool of blood with a slit across his throat inside St. Michael’s school.
The killer was never found.
In an effort to revive Fr. Kunz’s cold case 20 years later, the local police department is launching a social media campaign to see if there is any new information on who killed the priest.
“On the 20th anniversary, we thought we would start releasing information to the public that has not been publicly released,” said David J. Mahoney, a Dane County Sheriff, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I’m at a position in this case now, that if we haven’t solved it in 20 years, we need to do something different,” Mahoney continued.
Theories behind the murder abound, ranging from an attempt to prevent the priest from exposing sexual abuse to the work of a Satanic temple active near the parish. Fr. Kunz was reported to have a harsh, controlling personality, and police officials had told reporters that there were suggestions of financial and sexual impropriety in connection with the priest.
The social media campaign includes posts from the police department with the hashtag #whokilledfatherkunz. The posts include information about the case, such as the murder weapon, which was never found, and various conversations that Fr. Kunz had in the last days of his life.
In addition to the campaign, Kunz’s cold case will be featured on season three of the podcast “Unsolved,” which is currently under production.
William Yallaly, chancellor of the Diocese of Madison, told CNA that the sheriff’s office initiated the investigation, but the diocese is in full support.
He noted that Bishop Robert Morlino, who currently heads the diocese, arrived several years after the death of Fr. Kunz, but said that the bishop has affirmed the sheriff in undertaking the campaign to re-open the case.
“We want the truth to come out, whatever it is,” Yallaly said.
Regarding reports of possible motives, he noted, “We have heard rumors, gossip, and third party accusations, but have not received any concrete accusations of romantic, sexual, or financial improprieties.”
He encouraged the faithful to “pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Kunz.”
Over the weekend a Requiem Mass was celebrated in honor of Fr. Kunz, marking the twentieth anniversary of his death.
“He was a very holy man,” said Fr. Richard Heilman of St. Mary’s parish.
Although two decades have passed since his death, Mahoney hopes that the killer will come forward with a guilty conscience, or a perhaps a family member of the killer will offer new information.
In the initial investigation of the murder, the sheriff said, investigators may have focused too narrowly on one suspect, although there were several other people of interest.
However, Mahoney is hopeful that the new campaign could give them the second wind they need to close the case.
“We’re at the 10-yard line, but we’re pitted against a pretty strong defense and we need a good Aaron Rodgers to get us across the goal line.”
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A young woman holds a pro-life sign during a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. / Joseph Portolano/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2023 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Marking the first anniversary of Roe being overturned, a group of pro-life leaders rallied hundreds to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday with the message that they were united around the fight for full, legal protection for the unborn from the moment of conception in all 50 states.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told those gathered on a sunny, hot summer day that while she celebrated the 25 states that have passed strong pro-life laws, “we are in fact living in a divided states of America” where “a person’s location determines if they will survive the abortion gauntlet as we did.”
Hawkins said the country must become “an America where every human being is recognized as the unrepeatable person as they are with equal rights and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed, not because of what state their mother resides in or if they are perceived to be convenient or the circumstances of their conception.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Hawkins told CNA that pro-life leaders are uniting around the belief “that every human being is a human person at conception” and that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal justice clauses should be equally applied to persons in the womb.
“At a very minimum if you’re running for federal office, you should be able to acknowledge that abortion is a federal issue,” she said. “We want to see every presidential contender join with us to acknowledge what is so clearly written in the Fourteenth Amendment: that all human beings are human persons and deserve equal protection of our laws.”
Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called the Fourteenth Amendment “one of the most beautiful notes in our national song” and lamented that “when it comes to preborn children we have failed to extend these protections.”
Speaking at a rally in front of of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children.”. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Rose called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children. It is inconceivable that we would selectively deny these rights to one group of human beings solely based on their location: the womb.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently called on his fellow GOP presidential candidates to join him in backing a “minimum” nationwide 15-week abortion limit, made an appearance at the rally.
“As we celebrate this anniversary, let us here resolve that we will work and we will pray as never before to advance the cause of life in the laws of the land in every state in America. That we will support women in crisis pregnancies with resources and support for their care, for the unborn, and for the newborn as never before,” Pence said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
“We stand for the babies and their unalienable right to life,” he said, pledging that he and his family “will never rest and never relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-life America, shared words of advice for the growing list of 2024 presidential candidates: “Get your act together. Figure out what you’re for and advance it. Don’t wait,” she urged.
“We have consensus in this country,” she added. “Start with that and be the president you’re called to be in justice and love for moms and justice and love for their babies.” Consistent Gallup polling shows that the majority of Americans would prefer to limit abortion to the first three months of pregnancy.
There were many young people in the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, including Katriel Nyman, a 17-year-old from Washington state who is with Students for Life Tri-Cities. She told CNA that it was “really encouraging to see a bunch of people who believe in rights from conception.”
She said she’d “like to see more pro-lifers continue to persevere through this” post-Dobbs fight because “even if abortion isn’t legal in your state, you should be fighting for the rights of infants that are soon to be born in other states.”
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, holds a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that reads “We have dignified the children of Adam,” at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023. Lauretta Brown/CNA
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, held a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that read “We have dignified the children of Adam.”
She told CNA that she wanted to make her voice heard as a Muslim who believes, based on her faith, that abortion is wrong in most cases. She said many Muslims followers feel, as she does, that life begins “in the first couple weeks after conception.”
Munshi said that in the year since the Dobbs decision, “a lot of people that I know who don’t have strong opinions on abortion have been coming out either in favor or against” abortion. She sees it as valuable that there’s more discourse about the abortion issue and people are “coming to more conclusions for themselves as opposed to maybe rhetoric that they’ve seen in the news or rhetoric that they feel has been a part of their political platform.”
Jessica Newell, a Catholic student who is interning with Live Action and entering her third year at Coastal Carolina University, told CNA that “it’s so important for people who are indoctrinated by this culture to learn the truth about biology and the truth about God and that they’re made in the image of God.”
She emphasized that the pro-life movement still has so much to do and part of that work is “letting people know that they’re loved, that is a big step in changing the culture to a culture of life.”
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stands alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stood at the rally alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, and a sign which read “Babies survive abortions. I am one of them.”
“This was a very personal thing for Roe to be overturned,” she told CNA, “It is a day that we can celebrate, but it has not been a chance to pause, take our breath, it has been a time of continuing to hit the ground running.”
In her work heading the Abortion Survivors Network, Ohden said that since the Dobbs decision she’s heard from “more women than ever reaching out to us after their chemical abortions have failed.” She said it’s important to reach moms who are vulnerable to chemical abortions which make up the majority of abortions in the country.
Ohden said that since Dobbs the pro-life movement “has continued to be the side that is providing resources and support whether it’s in communities, at the state level, pushing for federal policy that supports mothers and children and families in a greater way.”
Her daughter Olivia said it was “amazing” to be at the rally with her mom and called the issue an emotional one because “people like my mom should be protected no matter who they are, where they are.”
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, urges the Supreme Court to restore abortion pill restrictions at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and August Pfluger, R-Texas, Mar. 21, 2024. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/… […]
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