Free Republic

Archbishop Rembert Weakland was a distant if familiar villain in my early teenage years. In the vestibule of the parish office where we held our Legion of Mary meetings, our liberal priests would put old copies of the newsletter of the Womens' Ordination Conference, National Catholic Reporter, and other publications of the Catholic left that featured Archbishop Weakland as a hero fighting against the tyranny of the Vatican. He was for dialogue on such issues as the female role in the leadership of the Church, social justice, and the democratization of Church power so that the laity would have...

VATICAN, May 24, 02 (CWNews.com) -- The Vatican has accepted the resignation of Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, one day after it was revealed that the archbishop had paid $450,000 to settle a sex-abuse lawsuit. Archbishop Weakland, who had already submitted his resignation, as required, upon reaching the age of 75, yesterday disclosed that he had asked the Vatican to "accelerate" the acceptance of that resignation in light of the new revelations. In a terse announcement, the Vatican today announced that Pope John Paul II had "accepted the resignation... presented by Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B., upon having reached the...

1980 Letter from Weakland to Marcoux The following is a transcription of a hand-written letter from Archbishop Rembert Weakland to Paul Marcoux, dated Aug. 25, 1980. A handwriting analyst who reviewed the letter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concluded it is done in Weakland's handwriting. It was sent inside a card with the following quote: Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words. - George Eliot August 25, 1980 Dear Paul, The epigram on the cover is more to stir me on than an expression of where - pro...

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...

MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Hundreds of parishioners who attended ``listening sessions'' held by the Milwaukee archdiocese to gauge response to the sex abuse scandal gave church officials an earful. ``The top is rotten,'' said Faythe Weber during a discussion at St. Gregory the Great Church on Thursday. ``I don't believe a word they say right now. It was cover-up, cover-up, cover-up.'' The session was one of six held simultaneously at parishes throughout the archdiocese. Parishioners vented their anger about the scandal and railed against the Roman Catholic church's hierarchy. ``A crime is a crime. It doesn't matter what your profession is,''...