Posted on 05/23/2002 6:07:24 AM PDT by NYer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland agreed in 1998 to pay $450,000 to a man who accused him of sexual assault, according to documents cited Thursday by ABC News. ABC said the agreement had required Paul J. Marcoux, 53, to keep silent.
``I was involved in a cover-up. I accepted money to be silent about it, not to speak out against what was going on,'' Marcoux said in an interview broadcast on ``Good Morning America.'' Marcoux (pronounced mar COO) said he was sexually assaulted 20 years ago, when he was a student at Marquette University and had gone to the archbishop seeking advice about entering the priesthood.
Marcoux told the network Weakland ``started to try and kiss me and continued to force himself on me, pull down my trousers and attempted to fondle me.'' ``Think of it in terms of date rape,'' Marcoux told ABC.
ABC said as part of the settlement, the archbishop and the archdiocese denied the claims. It said the church declined to comment until the report was aired. Matthew Flynn, an attorney for the archdiocese, reached after the interview aired on the East Coast but before it appeared in Milwaukee, declined comment to The Associated Press. Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese, did not immediately return calls from the AP.
The network also quoted from an 11-page handwritten letter that it said was written by Weakland. The letter, dated Aug. 25, 1980, said Weakland could not pay Marcoux more than $14,000 to settle the case.
``I should not put down on paper what I would not want the whole world to read. But here goes anyway,'' the letter said. ``I felt like the world's worst hypocrite. So gradually I came back to the importance of celibacy in my life. ...''
The ABC report said Marcoux sought more money in 1997 and the archbishop paid $450,000 to settle the case on condition of secrecy.
AP-ES-05-23-02 0852EDT
Sorry, OPH - You're wrong on this one; NFP works - My wife and I have used it for 11 years...
This tactic was used in my own diocese in the mid '80s. It was "take the money and shut up, or you lose the money." Not a very noble thing for a bishop to say and do.
Weakland has been converting his diocese into a Unitarian church with therapists provided by the DNC. The Cathedral was to be "renovated" to resemble a sports arena so that the people could actually get some good from it instead of wasting all that space on holy stuff. Mass would still be celebrated but it would be as in a storefront church.
For $450,000, I suspect it was more than one date.
What the hell is this supposed to mean? Gradually. This was only twenty years ago. You mean he lived most of his ordained life as a queer!
I don't think any real Catholics are having a "crisis of faith" - My faith is not in question, but the hierarchy is. As a lifelong conservative, my questioning of the crap spewed by many of our Bishops is not a new thing. I am hoping that this unfortunate period in our history will be an opportunity for use to purge the evil influences which pollute our church. Catholicism is a perfect religion implemented by imperfect men. We will root them out and move on.
I suspect it will make us stronger, actually.
Suffering and persecution generally do.
This headline says a LOT. There are few people in the Church who have ABUSED it more thoroughly than Weakland. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Ok. Who's next? Let's get these astards-Bay OUT of our Church.
Note to Weakling: "Get thee to a monastery!" (apologies to the immortal Bard...)
It don't matter. What was Weakland doin' pullin' his pants down and attempting to kiss him(disgusting)? Retired or not, the Church should defrock this jerk.
Yup. I think this is what we all suspected when we read that statement.
Like others have said though, this guy who was "molested" at 23 or 33 sure sounds like a wimp and an opportunist.
Weakland's last major project was the vandalisation, excuse me, "renovation" of Milwukee's Cathedral, in complete disregard of the howls of anguish and protest of faithful Catholics in his diocese. He even ignored a directive from Rome and thumbed his nose at the Vatican.
The American hierarchy needs to be thoroughly purged.
Look up the word molest. It could happen you, Alberta. You could be molested by an 80 y.o. nun.
The problem I have with post like yours is that you take isolated incidents of individual conduct and assert that those incidents show that the entire Church is corrupt and that the miscondict is widespread. The Church has 1 billion members and 50,000 priests in the U.S. alone. The fact that there are 50 or hundered bad apples over a 40-year period does not inpugn the integirty of the entire Church. It's its slanderous and libelous to continue repeating the same guilt by association argument.
And when the jury is faced with an 80 year-old nun accused of "molesting" a 6-1, 225-pound guy who plays hockey three times a week, they're going to laugh in my face and acquit her in about three seconds.
Respectfully, I believe you are completely missing the point. The church leadership, obviously to very high levels within its organization, has conspired with the "few" to sweep these problems under the rug by paying off the victims. As bad as the actions of the few are (and they are horrific), they are equalled by the *actions* of the leadership, and I use the word action (not inaction) because the leadership has indeed been active in covering up for the homosexual rape of its young people. I find it stretches the limits of believability to suggest that all these archdioces were functioning in a vacuum, that they did not have a coordinated plan for dealing with the abuse allegations (given the consistent way the issue has been dealt with from place to place).
Does he know the difference?
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