Pope Accepts Resignation of Archbishop Accused of Assault

NYTimes ^ | May 24, 2002 | By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

"Archbishop Weakland has been a leading figure in calling for progressive reforms in our church and justice in our society," said Dan Daley, co-director of Call to Action, a 25,000-member church reform group based in Chicago. "It's always shocking to hear of sex-abuse allegations, especially toward bishops."

Weakland is a heretic, not a reformer, who got what he deserved. The CINO's agenda is being destroyed by their own allies.

Margaret Steinfels, editor of the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal, said, "It is a tragedy that legitimate concerns about the sexual abuse of children by priests is turning into a sexual witch hunt." She called the archbishop's involvement with Mr. Marcoux "perhaps an indiscretion, perhaps a grave sin."

Hey Maggie, the guy he assaulted outed him. Hardly a witch hunt.

[CatoRenasci]

Good beginning that Weakland is out. Now, he should retire to a Trappist monastary, pray earnestly and do the Lord's work, and never be publicly heard from again.

[Jeff Chandler]

Note to offending clergy: don't let the narthex door hit you in the cassock on your way out.

[fogarty]

So, the Catholic church seems to believe that this criminal got what he deserved?

Gimme a break! This guy is retiring, he will likely get full pension, health care, and a posh place to live. All funded by the Catholic laity's donations.

I hope every Catholic realizes that the next time they put a buck in the offering plate that they are indirectly funding the comfort, convenience and legal defense of child predators and corrupted Archbishops.

[Anoy11_]

What makes Weakland a Heretic?

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

There are enough Catholics in Milwaukee who aren't going to let Weakland sneak off into the night and a cushy retirement.

JS Online: McCann may seek probe into source of payment               www.jsonline.com               Return to regular view

Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may02/45800.asp

McCann may seek probe into source of payment

By MARY ZAHN
of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: May 23, 2002

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann said Thursday that he would consider appointing a special prosecutor to determine the source of $450,000 that was used to pay off a man who accused Archbishop Rembert Weakland of sexual assault.

Weakland Accused

Photo/File

Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee: "I have never abused anyone."

Related Coverage

Payoff: McCann may seek investigation
Timeline: Weakland, Marcoux relationship
Settlement: Text of agreement between Paul J. Marcoux, Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Video: TMJ4 Report

The Letter

Page 1 of 11-page handwritten letter to Paul Marcoux

Letter: Weakland to Marcoux, Aug. 25, 1980
Lawyers: Letter seen as crucial to settlement

Reaction

Text: Weakland's response
Audio: Weakland's response (via spokesman)
Reaction: Some shocked, some saddened, but some not surprised

Paul J. Marcoux

Paul J. Marcoux is shown in this 1996 video "Christodrama: An Instrument of Conversion." See excerpt of video

Accuser: Marcoux a mix of conflicting emotions

Commentary

Stingl: Weakland's hush money a disservice to faithful
Walker: Questions grow, and the answers shrink
Editorial: Weakland must do better

Rembert G. Weakland

ARCHBISHOP OF MILWAUKEE
Born: Patton, Pa., on April 2, 1927.
Career: He became a Benedictine novice at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pa., in 1945 and became a monk in that order in 1949. He was ordained as a priest in 1951. 
He studied music in Italy, France and Germany, as well as at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and Columbia University. 
He was named Coadjutor Archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey in 1963. He was elected Abbot Primate of the International Benedictine Confederation in 1967. 
In 1968, he presided at the meeting of Monastic Superiors in Bangkok, at which Thomas Merton was one of the speakers. After Merton's death, Weakland administered the final anointing and had the body shipped back to the monastery of Gethsemani. 
He was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee by Pope Paul VI on Sept. 20, 1977. He was ordained a bishop on Nov. 8, 1977, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, and on the same occasion was installed as Milwaukee's Ninth Archbishop by Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic delegate to the United States. 
On April 2, his 75th birthday, Weakland sent a letter to the Vatican asking to retire.

Special Section

Section: Abuse in the Catholic Church

Related Links

Milwaukee: Ex-West Allis priest charged with sexual assault of 3 boys
On the Web: Milwaukee Archdiocese

McCann was one of the few people in Milwaukee who knew Weakland had a troubling relationship with a man. Years ago, in a private conversation with McCann, Weakland confessed to a consensual sexual relationship. McCann decided the situation was sad, but not criminal.

When the man, Paul Marcoux, later threatened a civil lawsuit against Weakland, the attorney for the archdiocese asked McCann to determine whether that constituted criminal extortion. It didn't, McCann thought.

McCann, who calls himself a devout Catholic, said he would not hesitate to call for an investigation.

"I am friends with the archbishop," McCann said. "Am I a close friend? I would say not. I will see what happens in the next several days, and if it appears there should be an investigation, there will be a special prosecutor. I have to digest what happened here - where the money came from."

McCann said a special prosecutor would have to determine whether the funds used for the settlement originally had been targeted for a specific program, such as Catholic Charities. Most contributions, he said, are not slotted for a specific purpose and are used for "the good of the church."

"It had been my hope when I read '$450,000' that maybe some rich person came forward and paid it," McCann said.

In a written statement released Thursday, Weakland said he had contributed in excess of $450,000 to the archdiocese from various lectures and writings and other honorariums during his 25 years as bishop.

One of the questions to be answered, McCann said, is whether the archdiocese had "run a total of what Weakland gave."

McCann said he learned of the payment to Marcoux on Thursday, when the story was first reported.

Meeting at cathedral rectory

He said he knew Weakland had a troubling consensual sexual relationship with someone years before there was any threat of a civil lawsuit.

At that time, McCann said, he had been asked to meet Weakland at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist rectory. He could not recall the year of the meeting. The name of the man was not revealed, he said.

"He (Weakland) advised me that he had a relationship that had compromised him in some fashion," McCann recalled. "I felt sad. There was no detail. Whether his conscience was bothering him, I couldn't tell you. He was troubled by it, but there was nothing criminal in it. It was clear it was an adult male. There was no suggestion of violence of any kind. You infer certain things. You don't start asking details. I had a sense he felt very badly about it. I do not know why he shared it with me. I don't think I gave any counsel to him. He didn't ask me anything. He told me."

Years later, he said, Matt Flynn - who is the attorney for the archdiocese and was instrumental in the $450,000 settlement - contacted McCann and told him that Marcoux was threatening to file a lawsuit naming Weakland and asked whether that constituted extortion. McCann could not remember the year Flynn contacted him, but records filed as part of the settlement agreement indicate it would have been in 1997.

McCann learns about letter

It was at this point, McCann said, that he first became aware of an August 1980 letter Weakland had written to Marcoux. That letter suggested that the two had an intense and emotional relationship. In it, Weakland expresses his love for Marcoux and his angst over not being able to maintain a relationship with him. The archbishop agonizes over how he let Marcoux dominate him.

Marcoux used the letter as evidence of the psychological trauma that he said Weakland had inflicted on him.

Flynn had threatened Marcoux with criminal prosecution for extortion if he filed a civil lawsuit against Weakland, according to an Oct. 20, 1997, letter from Brent D. Tyler, Marcoux's attorney.

However, McCann said, he determined that the case "would not sail as an extortion prosecution."

"Was it extortion to file a lawsuit?" McCann said. "There was nothing criminal here in the sense that if anything had happened, it was consensual between adults. What it was I couldn't tell you."

McCann said Marcoux never asked his office to review his relationship with Weakland for possible criminal charges.

Flynn did not return a reporter's phone calls on Thursday. Tyler said he would not comment because the settlement agreement required that he release no information on the case.

About a week ago, McCann said Flynn called to alert him that the 1980 letter from Weakland to Marcoux "was floating around."

"I got the impression that money had been paid and that the agreement was he was not to speak," McCann said. "That was the first time I heard money had been paid. I knew there were negotiations."

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 24, 2002.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

What he did to the Cathedral in Milwaukee and his dissent from Church teaching, which is not limited to the following:

Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, outspoken advocate of women’s ordination, spearheaded a document last summer proposing that the American bishops become more independent from the Holy See. Some lines in the CtbC statement have actually been taken word for word from his "NCCB Restructuring Proposal". And again in this document, the archbishop includes the same list of "urgent questions" that need to be discussed. In 1994, in response to Pope John Paul II’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Archbishop Weakland responded with a pastoral letter expressing his "own inner turmoil" at the pope’s reaffirmation that the Church has no authority to ordain women to the priesthood. "In this [the pope] has certainly disagreed with my position that the issue should be left open because of the unresolved theological questions involved," the archbishop lamented.

http://aquinas-multimedia.com/catherine/common.html

[ThomasMore]

Archbishop Weakland has been a leading figure in calling for progressive reforms in our church

Archbishop Weakland has been a leading figure in calling for Pagan reforms in our church!

[Anoy11_]

ok, so you're using the word "heretic" like a 20 year old journalism major uses the word "fascist" when describing George W. Bush.

[Catspaw]

Margaret Steinfels, editor of the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal, said, "It is a tragedy that legitimate concerns about the sexual abuse of children by priests is turning into a sexual witch hunt." She called the archbishop's involvement with Mr. Marcoux "perhaps an indiscretion, perhaps a grave sin."

Hey, Maggie--is the vow of celibacy optional? Does it have opt-out invisible clauses us laymen can't see? Does it apply just sometimes? If one crosses one's fingers when one takes the vow of celibacy does it mean it doesn't count at all, or just sometimes, or just when the person taking the vow decides that it does?

Truly astounding, just truly astounding.

[SuziQ]

The Vatican announced the decision without comment and gave the archbishop's age as the reason for the retirement.

Whatever reason they give, I'm glad he's GONE!!!

[ThomasMore]

while they might have been able to forgive their archbishop's sexual indiscretion with a grown man, they were angry to learn about the size and secrecy of the settlement.

Money! It just goes to show where the "progressives" heads are at. Nothing but CINOs.

[ThomasMore]

Note to offending clergy: don't let the narthex door hit you in the cassock on your way out.

LOL!

[SuziQ]

They(Christodramas) have never been very popular, and are no longer listed in the on-line catalog of Harcourt Religion Publishers, formerly Brown-Roa, which originally distributed them

Man, if they were so bad that Brown Roa no longer carries them they must have REALLY STUNK! Brown Roa was the publishers of a 'Family Life Education' (sex-ed) program the principal of our kids' Catholic School had us preview (among several others) to recommend which program to use. It was so explicit, even in the second grade books, that, even those who were gung-ho for a sex-ed program were appalled! The group rejected that one, but went with another one. We kept our kids out of the 'Family Life' class that year (it was totally inane), then the following year, took them out of the school!

[ThomasMore]

...Catholic church seems to believe that this criminal got what he deserved?

No, but we did get rid of one bigtime liberal dissenter and troublemaker with a fitting legacy that brands him a son of "Liberalism" and not of the Gospel.

...funding the comfort, convenience and legal defense of child predators and corrupted Archbishops.

Now you're painting with a very broad brush.

PS: Didn't you know that your taxes went and paid for the comfort, convienence and lifestyle of every liberal politician the likes of Bawney Fwank! ;^)

[B Knotts]

She called the archbishop's involvement with Mr. Marcoux "perhaps an indiscretion, perhaps a grave sin."

PERHAPS?!?!!

[duckln]

Question

What is the 33 yr old 'victim's' sexual orintation?

How can the 'victim' compare 'attempted to kiss me' with 'date rape'?

Assuming the worse is true, was the 'victim' actually the aggressor and a 'blackmailer' to boot in what in a secular society would be a 'petty' encounter?

Do we have the same laws for everyone or special ones for priests? Think of all the Rock Hudson/Rosie types PC'd as 'hero's by most of the Media and Hollywood.

[John O]

Can the Cathedral be restored or did they destroy too much of it during the wreckovation?

I haven't been a practicing Catholic for years but the Catholic churches were always places where you could experience the presence of God. They had a reverence that was palpable in the church. The pictures of the 'new' St John's look more like a modern art museum, complete with scrap metal sculpture, than a church.

God Save America (Please)