Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Milwaukee still stuck with Archbishop Weakland

Former Milwaukee archbishop decides to stay in Milwaukee
River Falls Journal - 05/27/2009

Rembert Weakland is not going anywhere.
The former Milwaukee Archbishop, and one of the central figures in the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal, has decided not to move to St. Mary’s Abbey in New Jersey.
He said an abbot at the monastery was concerned that his presence there might be a “negative element.” That’s after recent revelations from Weakland’s upcoming book. Among other things, the book explains his homosexuality, and a contention that bishops used to consider sexual abuse by priests as a moral evil instead of a crime.

The abbey where Weakland was planning to go is also the home of a highly-regarded boys’ prep school run by the Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s. A former headmaster, Abbot Giles Hayes, said Weakland changed his plans without saying why and he did not believe the controversy over the book had anything to do with it. But Weakland said Benedictine leaders were scheduled to discuss concerns about his move the day after he offered to withdraw.

Weakland, 82, now says he’ll stay in Milwaukee. He was the archbishop for southeast Wisconsin from 1977-2002. And he’s still a key figure in lawsuits accusing the church of committing fraud, by transferring abusive priests to other parishes while keeping their histories secret.
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I'm curious. Suppose Weakland had kept a low profile and not written his tell-all book. Would he be welcome at the Abbey as long as he kept the secret? Frankly, I want to know who the homosexuals in the priesthood are. Knowledge is power to protect the children. As long as homosexual priests can masquerade they have access to children in their parishes. That's what happened in the child abuse scandals. Homosexuals should not be priests, but if they are, the laity have the right to know so those of us with sense can keep our children and grandchildren away from them. No matter how much the world wants to portray homosexuals as no threat to children the fact remains that their small community commits a large percentage of child sexual abuse. It's not bigotry to want to keep our children away from them; it's simply common sense.

As for Weakland, did parents raise an outcry threatening the "highly-regarded boys prep school?" Would the abbey have welcomed a closeted homosexual? Let's hope not, but if the past is prologue to the future, homosexuals are still a protected breed in the Church as long as they keep their hands off minors and engage in secret age-appropriate relationships.

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