[NYer]

The purge continues.

[NYer]

Wonder who will be next.....

[aristeides]

No wonder Weakland thinks the problem is the victims squealing.

[zbogwan2]

Looks like the Catholic Church is full of these men of Satan from top to bottom?

[sinkspur]

These "hush agreements" ought to be breached. They were unseemly when they were written, and they are covering up criminality now.

Every priest will be suspect, thanks to the continuing revelations. Get them all out, or the cloud will never lift.

[billbears]

Paul J. Marcoux, 53
he was sexually assaulted 20 years ago
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.

He was 33 at the time? And he let the priest try to pull his pants down? How big is this guy?

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Does not surprise me at all that Weakland would have done this or attempted to cover it up. He is a high order heretic whose arrogance has fashioned quite a noose.

[Mike Fieschko]

The story is at this abc news page.

[Tacis]

They are not men of satan, they are merely fairies, perverts whose deviant behavior has become much more tollerable in society, in general, because of their involvement. It is not paedophilia as they would have you believe. These guys were fairies when they joined the church and have practiced for many years while in the church.

But, look at the demographics. We see 70 year old fairies bt none who would be of the age group to be sexual predators today. Why? Have they cleaned up their act? No, the answer has to be that the problem is far, far worse than could be imagined. The church is circling the wagons and has begun to tell victims to screw off. It may be that fairy victims will not talk 'til ther're age 30 to 45.

Who is the priest molesting today's altar boys and why haven't we heard ANYTHING about him?

[CWW]

WEakling, as orthodox Catholics call him, has been a thorn in the side of the Church for years. He's all but ousted. He has been a dissenter from Church teachings for years, whether it be abortion, homsexuality, birth control, etc. . . . Now, there's solid evidence to dump him. In no way does he represent the Church.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

His particular judgment will be interesting to say the least.

[Mike Fieschko]

Here's the story from abc news:

Vow of Silence

Archbishop Signed $450,000 Agreement to Hush Sex Abuse Claim

By Brian Ross
ABCNEWS.com
May 23
— Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland has urged the Catholic church to open up about its growing sex abuse crisis, but he has desperately tried to keep sexual abuse allegations against himself a secret, ABCNEWS has learned.

The 75-year-old archbishop is accused of sexually assaulting an adult man, then covering it up for more than two decades. Paul Marcoux, a 53-year-old former theology student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said the archbishop sexually assaulted him over 20 years ago when he went to him for advice about going into the priesthood.

Weakland, along with the archdiocese, later paid Marcoux $450,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement in which Marcoux vowed never to tell anyone about what he alleges transpired. Also in the agreement obtained by ABCNEWS, Weakland denied the allegations, but signed the document. The deal was hammered out four years ago by the archbishop, Marcoux, and each of their respective lawyers.

"I've been involved in the cover-up. I've accepted money to be silent about it," Marcoux told ABCNEWS.

But now he is breaking the silence. Neither Weakland nor the archdiocese would comment on the allegations.

A Church Leader

Weekland, who has been archbishop for 25 years, is considered one of the most important leaders in the American Catholic Church. He is expected to play an important role at next month's meeting of U.S. bishops to deal with the church's growing sex abuse crisis. His plan for dealing with abuse cases has been touted as a national model.

"So, as long as the victims are OK about it, I have no problem opening up those cases," Weakland told reporters at a recent press conference.

But all the while, Marcoux said that at least one incident has been lurking in the archbishop's past.

Marcoux says he met Weakland in 1979 while attending Marquette University. He says the incident occurred after dinner in the Archbishop's apartment, when he asked him for advice about entering the priesthood.

"A short time later he was sitting next to me and then started to try to kiss me," Marcoux said. "And I would say, well, think of it in terms of date rape."

Weakland forced himself on him, pulling down his trousers, and trying to fondle him, Marcoux said.

‘The World’s Worst Hypocrite’

Over the next year, Marcoux says the archbishop continued to seek a sexual relationship with him, but Marcoux says he only wanted a friendship. The relationship ended soon after Weakland wrote an 11-page letter to Marcoux, dated Aug. 25, 1980.

"I should not put down on paper what I would not want the whole world to read — but here goes anyway," he wrote.

Later on in the letter he writes, "I felt like the world's worst hypocrite so I gradually came back to the importance of celibacy in my life."

The letter makes it clear that even then, Marcoux was pressuring the archbishop for money. But Weakland claimed he could give no more.

"Paul, I really have given you all I personally possess," the letter says. "The $14,000 is really my personal limit."

Hush Money From Archbishop

But 16 years later, in 1997, with the powerful archbishop trying to deal with widespread allegations of abuse within the church, Marcoux was back, threatening to file his own lawsuit. This time, he got the money he sought, though Marcoux says that what he really wanted was an apology.

Marcoux acknowledges that some people might view the written agreement as blackmail.

"[It was] a settlement for a sexual assault case," Marcoux said. "And what I wanted to do was to have my day in court."

Settlement, but No Peace

Still, the money hasn't brought him solace, he said.

"I must say that even though I received a handsome settlement on it, it has not obviously brought me much peace in this thing," Marcoux said.

Some local critics of the church say that the archbiship had no business making a secret payment of $450,000 simply to save himself from embarrassment.

"You just don't take church money to hush it up," said Peter Isley, who heads the Milwaukee chapter of an organization of those abused by priests."That money is a trust given to the archdiocese to be used for the ministry. To be used to help people, to clothe people who don't have clothes, for God's sake! I mean what can you do with a couple hundred thousand dollars? There are people in this town starving!"

[Alberta's Child]

Weakland may be an @sshole, but this was not a case of abuse -- a 33 year-old man does not get "molested" by an older man.

[Congressman Billybob]

The urge for sex is one of the four basic drives in human beings. Mature people control and direct that drive in positive directions. Immature people give in to it, often in destructive ways.

Such failures are commonplace in the real world. Among those who hold leadership positions, however, such failures are more than merely "personal" failures. Someone who exercises power over the lives and property of other people must be capable of self-constrol, Otherwise, they can and will do things that are destructive to those who depand upon them.

Also, it is well-known that sexual crimes are among the most repetitive crimes that humans commit. Someone who is shown to have committed just one crime of sexual activity has almost certainly committed others of the same type, and will almost certainly commit additional ones in the future, unless stopped.

Lastly, people in positions of power who commit sexual crimes do recognize that their acts are wrong, but they also have power to use funds in their control to silence those who know the truth, to continue to present a false front to the public.

There is, of course, one step worse than paying off the victims. It is murdering the victims.

Every word of this applies equally to Archbishop Weakland, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Bill Clinton. Weakland should resign immediately from all leadership and priestly duties with the Catholic Church. If he does not do that, the Church should remove him from all such positions, immediately.

Jesse Jackson should resign immediately from all positions of leadership in all his organizations. If not, he should be removed from them.

Bill Clinton should have resigned as President of the United States. Since he did not, the Senate should have removed him.

Can and should Weakland make the argument "it's all about sex"? If he does, it should be flatly rejected. Sex is only the symptom. It's really about maturity and self-control. Men who are not mature, men who lack self-control, should not be put in, and not be allowed to remain in, positions of power over others.

Bottom line: there is no moral difference between O.J. Weakland, O.J. Jackson, O.J. Clinton, and O.J. They are all reprehensible human beings. They, and anyone who defends them, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. All such people need to be removed from positions of power and respect as quickly as possible. No ifs, ands or buts.

It's as simple as that.

Congressman Billybob

Click here to fight Campaign Finance "Reform" - CFR

Click here for latest: "More Mush from the Wimp."

[remaininlight]

Paul J. Marcoux was 23 at the time and was not penetrated as far as I can see. In essence he extorted half a mil from the church years after the fact. I would mark him down as a scam artist. Not to say what Weakland did was OK but.....

[petkus]

Didn't Weakland have problems with the people in Milwaukee with regard to the renovation of the Cathedral? I believe there was appeals to Rome.

[beckett]

I shudder when I think of the crises of faith these revelations are undoubtedly causing among untold millions of Catholics. In my view, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Roman Catholic Church in America is teetering on the edge of collapse.

[Kryptonite]

I'm happy this hypocrite is being exposed. He's been a thorn in the side of Wisconsin Catholics for decades.

[B Knotts]

So, does this mean that there will still be an exposure of an active homosexual Cardinal, as O'Reilly claimed?

Or, did he just get his Cardinals and Bishops mixed up?

[patent]

Why oh why oh why couldn't he have outed this jerk years and years ago? How many people have been hurt by not removing Weakland as a Bishop?

patent

[ThomasMore]

ABC said the agreement had required Paul J. Marcoux, 53, to keep silent.

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.