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Former Gov. Tommy Thompson played a key role in arranging an unusual memorial service for the mother of a Catholic priest and convicted child molester inside a Wisconsin prison, according to a letter that surfaced this week as part of a legal settlement.

In the September 8, 1997, letter to Thompson, Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, thanks the then-Republican governor for "granting an extraordinary permission" for the body of the priest's deceased mother to be brought into the prison for viewing.

The Illinois priest, Norbert Maday, was serving time for sexually assaulting two boys in central Wisconsin.

The letter was released as part of a legal settlement announced this week in Illinois between the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese and victims of sexual abuse by Maday and others and was posted on the Web site of a lawyer representing the victims.

"It was an exceptional act of charity," George wrote to Thompson, who is Catholic. "I know of the extraordinary planning and subsequent mobilization that had to take place that day. It required exceptional effort of your staff."

The document drew sharp criticism from Peter Isely, the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who said it showed the special treatment priests can receive from public officials.

"The unwritten law has been, unfortunately, that clearly priests and bishops are treated differently, even if they've raped children, than other citizens. And that has to change," Isely said.

Thompson spokesman Jason Denby said Thompson was traveling on business and unavailable today to comment on the letter and the memorial service. Calls to the victims' lawyer, Jeff Anderson, and the Archdiocese of Chicago were not immediately returned today.

The service for Maday's mother, Catherine, was held on Aug. 27, 1997, and involved bringing her sealed casket into Fox Lake Correctional Institution. Two funeral home workers, at least one Catholic priest, and at least six people on Maday's approved visitor list attended the 15-minute memorial, the Wisconsin State Journal reported shortly after the service.

The State Journal reported then that Department of Correction officials in Madison had arranged the service and that Thompson's office had taken the request from Catholic officials in Chicago.

Maday, 70, was an associate pastor at Our Lady of Ridge parish in Chicago Ridge, Ill. He was convicted in 1994 in Winnebago County of two counts of second degree sexual assault and had two counts of intimidating a witness dismissed. The sexual molestations occurred in 1986 at an outreach center in Oshkosh. Maday was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a mandatory release date of October 2007.

Maday is facing a state action in Winnebago County to have him civilly committed as a sexually violent person. His lawyer, Aaron Birnbaum, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

A document released by the diocese shows that Maday, who was ordained in April 1964, was removed from public ministry in March 1992.