Weakland's Legacy: a Homosexual Fantasy?

E. Michael Jones, the major domo of Culture Wars magazine, has written another thought-provoking article following the fall of Rembert Weakland, OSB, ex-Archbishop of Milwaukee. In this article, published in the July/August 2002 issue, Jones brilliantly combines what APPEAR to be two different topics and challenges both the 'conventional wisdom' about the origin of priest-pedophilia cases, as well as the current malaise of the Liturgy. Jones demonstrates that these are not only related, but literally inseparably bound by the personalities involved.

Jones begins with the Weakland story--the suddenly accepted resignation after the revelation that Weakland had had a passionate affair with a blackmailer-- and demonstrates very clearly that this problem dropped the nuclear bomb into the works of the Left--those who would justify homosexual ordinations yet jail practicing homosexuals who just happened to pick on men under the age of 18. The logic, of course, is impeccable: the '18-year-old' taboo is merely a construct of society and its opinion leaders. That age could change to, say, 16 or 21. Thus, the NCCB's foolish "one-strike" policy becomes exposed for what it really is: a political, not moral, policy. Quoting Civilta Cattolica to the effect that the policy will not likely survive Roman review intact, Jones clarifies the issue: sin is sin. Along the way, he makes clear that the tactics espoused by the Left, first agitating for legitimizing ordination of homosexuals, then calling for jailing those priests who actually practice their disorder, are tactics which constitute a strategy: the demolition of the Church.

Thus, the Americanist drive for birth control, married clergy, female clergy, and legitimization of homosexual practices, an agenda pushed openly by Rembert Weakland and not-too-subtly by his collaborators among the Bishops, was part-and-parcel of the subversion of the Church. Subversion, of course, is the principal characteristic of sexual deviance. One needs only to critically read the writings of such noted homosexuals as E M Forster, or Charles Reich's Greening of America, or Anthony Blunt's activities in England.

Jones illuminates and ties together these seemingly disparate threads by referring to them historically in the context of the 'sexualization' of the Church, a wholly Americanist invention. Feminists, homosexuals, and contraceptors share the desire to rationalize their practices which are contrary to natural law as well as to the teachings and practices of the Church. Jones states clearly that the real issue is not pedophilia--and not even homosexuality. It is improper sexual behavior between consenting adults. There is not likely a better vehicle for subversion in the case of the Roman Catholic Church.

But the agenda, sexualization, could hardly be moved forward without artful and deceptive terminology. Such lofty goals as "inclusivity," "assimilation," and avoidance of "integrism," (which Weakland defines as an evil) had to be substituted as vehicles for implementation. Archbishop Quinn found out the hard way that being honest about it causes trouble. The Bishops wanted to be accepted by the American culture, writes Jones--and if they had to sell their inheritance (and wind up feeding the pigs on another's farm), they would go for it.

Calling to mind Thomas Aquinas' statement that sexual sin causes a mental 'blindness,' Jones quotes from Weakland's letter to Marcoux (the lover who brought on Weakland's downfall.) The letter demonstrates clearly that Weakland was blind to the fact that Marcoux was simply a blackmailer--a grifter. Marcoux was after Weakland for his own narcissistic project, and Weakland for the narcissistic gratification of being 'loved.' Not only did Aquinas foretell this; so did Reich in his The Mass Psychology of Fascism, his blueprint for the sexual revolution, wherein Reich stated that the net result of deviant sexual activity is alienation from God. Weakland's letter proves Reich to be correct: "I couldn't pray at all. I just did not seem to be honest with God.I felt I was fleeing from [H]im...", and so Rembert Weakland, ensnared, became part of the group who would subvert the Church. Not immediately--he repented, and in 1980 told his priests to 'take courage' if they had sinned. But by 1991, Weakland told the New York Times that 'celibacy works to our detriment in the Church.'

Related to the liturgy, we must recall that Weakland was one of the principal architects of the Novus Ordo Mass and all that is related to it, including musical practice and the areas of art and architecture of the Church. Weakland was one of the original members of the Music Advisory Board to the USCC and retained power in the liturgical establishment of the US, directly or indirectly, through the present day. His subversion of the Liturgy began before the close of the Second Vatican Council and was spearheaded by a fellow Benedictine, Godfrey Dieckmann through his endorsement of the 'hootenanny Mass.' Jones points out correctly that most of the 'hootenanny' music was in fact popular music and even worse, was tinged or shot through with Dionysian overtones. The ultimate victory was achieved through a carefully-managed "vote" at a Committee meeting (similar to the "vote" of a Committee which unleashed the iconoclasts who tore apart the sacred spaces years later.) There was no legal force to the "vote," but Weakland was extremely good with the press, and despite Rome's clear objections, the avalanche had begun. Reich, too, had something to say about music in his Greening of America; that "music has become the deepest means of communication and expression for an entire culture." This is true regardless of the culture, by the way--but Reich refers specifically to the counter-culture in this statement.

The legitimate liturgist observer notes that "some [Weakland and others] were trying to assert that all things are sacred...They were in fact saying that nothing is 'sacred' and the result was a desacralization." The parallel with 'wreckovation' is clear and stark.

Weakland was selected in 1987 as a delegate to the Synod of Bishops. The delegation was told by Bryan Hehir (who was the Secretary of the NCCB/USCC at the time) that 'they should not hesitate to push their [American] program at the Synod...' and that 'the US experience is valid....and the rest of the world should learn from it.' It was at this planning meeting where the US delegation and certain Bishops determined that a key element in the assault would be a demand for altar girls. Bishops Imesch and Bernardin were leaders, and their choice of Weakland was in and of itself a message to Rome.

Ultimately, Weakland and those like him hate nature and order--nature is merely a manifestation of divine order. He fought nature and order tooth and nail, subverting the Church's liturgy, music, art, and architecture, and in the end openly defying three Vatican congregations who asked him to halt his 'renovation' of Milwaukee's Cathedral. Albeit not the one he thought it would be, Weakland certainly left a 'legacy.'

The price of the mess of pottage--of the sale of Weakland's inheritance--has yet to be determined. But we already can see that it is significant. The souls who have been mis-led and who have failed to 'resist the spirit of the age, (St. Paul) have in many cases been led to their destruction by our Americanist, disordered Bishops. This is a legacy, all right.

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Along the way, he makes clear that the tactics espoused by the Left, first agitating for legitimizing ordination of homosexuals, then calling for jailing those priests who actually practice their disorder, are tactics which constitute a strategy: the demolition of the Church.

And to date, they are succeeding. The Church wants to have a highly active homosexual priesthood. That involves the breaking of solemn vows (and therefore the total breaking of trust with the Church and with the laity), as well as active sin. A Church in which people cannot trust a priest (because he breaks his vows, along with the Church's religious tenets), and in which parents cannot trust a priest with their sons, has been badly torn. The Church needs to decide - an active queer homosexual priesthood, or the reestablishment of trust and the reconstructing of the Church as it is supposed to be.

A disturbed and cowardly and sinful and unChristian one.

The Church wants to have a highly active homosexual priesthood.

WrongO, VB.

SOME MEMBERS OF THE HIERARCHY (and some members of the laity) want to have a highly active homosexual AND HETEROSEXUAL priesthood (married priests.)

Not 'the Church.'

SOME MEMBERS OF THE HIERARCHY (and some members of the laity) want to have a highly active homosexual AND HETEROSEXUAL priesthood (married priests.) Not 'the Church.'

I would like to believe you. But look at the evidence. There has been a massive homosexualition of the Church throughout the world - not just in the US. How do I know? Because the homosexual teenage boy rape scandals have hit the US, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, etc. etc. etc. My friend's in the Philippines tell me that the priesthood there is becoming increasingly and highly homosexual. And of course, wherever there are concentrations of homosexual priests, active homosexuality flourishes and molestations against teenage boys occur. If the Church did not want this, it did not want to stop it. Same thing, in my mind. We have a queerized, sodomaniacal Church. Do you see that changing?

First of all, you have rather nicely portrayed the 'leadership' function of the American Church. The cancer has spread along with what we refer to as American 'culture.' But for you to equate this with the will of the Indefectible Church is, ah, politely, heresy.

Of course it is changing. One needs only to look at Bishops such as Bruskewitz (and Dolan, now,) Stafford, George, and Sullivan of North Dakota, not to mention Orders such as Miles Jesu and the Legionnaires of Christ.

Say again, with feeling, the Act of Hope.

Say again, with feeling, the Act of Hope.

I should say the 'leadership of the Church' rather than 'the Church,' agreed. I have hope and faith that the Church will restore itself with regard to its sexual problems, and its evil abuse of children. But I am impatient. I would like to see it in my lifetime, and in particular, soon enough that my children do not have to relive the betrayal that we have just gone through in ours.

Calling to mind Thomas Aquinas' statement that sexual sin causes a mental 'blindness,'

There is a strand in English (at least -- that's the one I know) literature that draws on the perception that "being in love" is a form of insanity -- often delightful, of course, and even necessary if the world is to go on, but nonetheless . . . . It's strongest in medieval, but still strong in the 16th century. I tried to explain this to an undergraduate class once, and saw the resistance in their eyes -- but when I said, "Don't think of yourself in love -- think of your friends, or even better of your younger brothers and sisters," I could see comprehension dawn. (It's a wonder that it works out as often as it does!)

Reich, too, had something to say about music in his Greening of America; that "music has become the deepest means of communication and expression for an entire culture."

Didn't Plato, in The Republic impose strict limitations on music because it had so great a power to move? Maybe someone else can find the passage (I think my copy is in the books stored in the closet that doesn't open in humid weather).

Didn't Plato, in The Republic impose strict limitations on music because it had so great a power to move?

As a total aside to this thread (heresy on FR, I know!), I have often wondered about the genesis and meaning of music. It is extremely powerful and emotive, yet serves no 'evolutionary' purpose whatsoever. Have often wondered whether heaven is filled with God's music.

These are hopeful signs, agreed. Would that the good-infection spread, and rapidly.

Have often wondered whether heaven is filled with God's music.

The Music of the Spheres? -- a medieval notion, but I'm basically a medievalist. See C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image:

"And secondly, as that vast (though finite) space is not dark, so neither is it silent. If our ears were opened we should perceive, as Henryson puts it,

every planet in his proper sphere/In moving makand [making]harmony and sound.
(Fables, 1659)

as Dante heard it (Paradiso, I, 78) and Troilus (V, 1812)."

Ninenot can probably contribute lots more. (I'm unfortunately not the least musically talented and consequently ignorant.)

Is this a good place to complain about our new "cathedral" here in Los Angeles?

The building is absolutely modernist ugly, doesn't even begin to approach looking like a church, let alone a great cathedral. And they paid $200 MILLION for it! Looks more like a factory building.

When I picked up my copy of the Archdiocesan newspaper yesterday, and saw that the courtyard has a sculpture depiction of a Native American creation story, I just about choked! It may be a lovely sculpture, and a nice sentiment, but a pagan sculpture as part of the Roman Catholic Cathedral???!!!

Then today, the LATimes had a couple of articles in the Calendar section praising the cathedral. On the cover of the section was the statue of the "Blessed Virgin." If the real Blessed Virgin was that ugly, I can see how she would remain a virgin!

I just about hurled my lunch when I read the part about the "virgin goddess"!!! Could somebody please take pity on these folks and give them a clue???!!!

"Music is that which moves the soul, we know not how."

Yes. And Ratzinger plays the same tune, BTW, in his writings on the topic of sacred music. He is particularly negative about that music which has strong beats on #s 2 & 4 of the measure (rock'n'roll.)

Now one obviously does not hear rock during Mass, right? Wrong. There is an implicit 2&4 backbeat in "Eagle's Wings," as well as in a good deal of other St. Louis Jesuit music. One needs not spell out the orientation of these young fellows--but since one is from Milwaukee, I can tell you--I'm from Milwaukee, and I oughta know.

Of course, Ratzinger's thesis is valid. The 2&4 accent music most often heard is rock, which moves the region of the body beneath the bellybutton. "....one knows not how."

BTW, listening the other day (not by choice) to current rock tunes, I noticed that it has come a long way since the Beach Boys. It is raw and explicit, and this was on a 'teenybopper' oriented station.

This is not surprising. The 'culture' will continue to spiral downward for a while yet.

Also of interest: Ratzinger reminds us that 'culture' is derived from the word 'cult.' That is, what one worships is clearly identified by the appurtenances, the 'culture' surrounding the worshipped item(s).

Gregorian Chant is recommended because it is devoid of beat, but not of rhythm; it is 'genderless,' having neither feminine nor masculine quality; and it is timeless in its attractiveness to souls. It moves BOTH the MIND and the HEART to God. (The very definition of sacred art.)

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