In a 2003 letter to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, requesting that the Vatican process be expedited for the laicization of priests who he believed were "remorseless and a serious risk to children", Dolan wrote: "As victims organize and become more public, the potential for true scandal is very real." In May 2012, "The New York Times" revealed that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, then headed by Dolan, had paid some abusive priests – although already dismissed from their priestly duties – up to $20,000 to leave the priesthood immediately rather than force the church to initiate time-consuming and expensive laicization proceedings against them. The archdiocese noted that the "unassignable priests" were still receiving full salaries and would continue to do so until they were formally laicized; and that the payouts were a "motivation" so that the priests would not contest being defrocked. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests sent a formal protest asking, "In what other occupation, especially one working with families and operating schools and youth programs, is an employee given a cash bonus for raping and sexually assaulting children?" Dolan had previously responded to accusations that he had given "payoffs" to accused priests as "false, preposterous and unjust".