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.