By Kilian Melloy
EDGE Boston
May 13, 2009
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=91117
 |
| Archbishop Rembert Weakland |
In the wake of a retired Catholic archbishop’s disclosure, in the course of his autobiography, of being gay, right-wing religious pundits have rushed to smear Catholic "liberals."
As noted in an Associated Press article carried by EDGE on May 12, Rembert Weakland had retired as archbishop of Milwaukee in 2002 amidst a scandal involving charges brought by a former theology student at Marquette University, Paul Marcoux, that the church had paid Marcoux hush money to the tune of nearly half a million dollars after Marcoux accused Weakland of sexual assault.
Marcoux’s revelation came during the Catholic church’s pediophile priest crisis, when members of the faith and others were demanding answers about priests who had been allowed to continue serving despite allegations that young children were being sexually assaulted.
In some instances, it appeared that church officials were shielding priests, paying out money and relocating priests from one community to another, where the pattern of abuse could be repeated.
Weakland himself appeared to be part of what some declare to be a culture of such enabling behavior, admitting that he reassigned abusive priests.
But Weakland did not appear to be an abuser, Marcoux’s claim notwithstanding. Subsequent reports indicated that the encounter had been consensual; moreover, a letter Weakland had written to the then-31-year-old student professed Weakland’s love for the younger man, and added that his anguish had brought Weakland "back to the importance of celibacy in my life."
Weakland’s autobiography " A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop," which is set for publication in June, addresses the now-82-year-old archbishop’s homosexuality and the struggles he endured during his church career.
Anti-gay religious conservatives seized on the book to promote the idea that pedophile priests were gay, and that "liberals" had had a role in permitting the abuse, which was widespread, to take place.
Anti-gay religious site LifeSiteNews posted a May 12 article mentioning the autobiography and quoting the author of another book, Michael Rose, who wrote "Good Bye Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church."
Said Rose, "It certainly comes as no surprise to me--or to those truly familiar with the former Archbishop of Milwaukee--that he identifies himself as ’gay.’"
Added Rose, "The revelations of his ’love letters’ to a male college student a few years ago already gave a pretty good indication of his sexual leanings."
Hastening to link Weakland’s sexuality with his politics, Rose went on to say, "What is most disappointing is that his sexual perversions and obsessions colored the way he led the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, turning it... into a bastion of liberalism that encouraged dissent from the teachings of the Church on sexual issues and a host of others."
Added Rose, "Gay ministry and radical feminism were welcome while orthodoxy was maligned."
Not everyone shared Rose’s scathing view of Weakland’s contributions to the church’s mission of social justice. At the time of Weakland’s retirement, with the scandal still newly painful, a commentary published in the National Catholic Reporter on June 11, 2002, sought to make sense of the then-fresh revelations.
Commentator Sandra M. Schneiders wrote of Weakland as a "bishop who has, for over a quarter century, shown himself a man of peace, committed to ecumenical and interreligious reconciliation, reaching out at his own peril to the marginalized in society and in the church" in her op-ed piece.
"Like many Vatican II Catholics who have looked to Archbishop Rembert Weakland as a visionary and courageous pastor and leader throughout these difficult years of postconciliar restorationism, I was saddened and deeply shocked when he was accused of sexual assault, abuse and fraud," Schneiders wrote.
However, with time, Schneiders noted, "I came to realize that my shock was caused by an immediate, unreflective assimilation of the Weakland case to the sordid abuse scandal involving clergy who have used their status, sometimes over years, to rape dozens or even hundreds of children and youths for their own pleasure."
The incident with Marcoux, which later was reported to have been consensual, "has nothing in common with this scenario," wrote Schneiders, who noted that Marcoux was 31 at the time of his alleged sexual encounter with Weakland.
"Whatever else was going on, there is no question of pedophilia or ephebophilia," wrote Schneiders.
"If Marcoux had been even uncomfortable, much less suspicious that he was in danger, he could have simply walked away. Weakland was in no position to coerce him."
Added Schneiders, "[O]f the two, Weakland, admitted in writing that the relationship was morally wrong and called it off."
As for the question of Weakland’s homosexuality, which had not at that time been disclosed by the archbishop, Schneiders wrote, "All religious, gay or straight, who freely choose a life of consecrated celibacy undertake to live a life of complete sexual abstinence. Sexual orientation is vocationally irrelevant.
"What is relevant is whether the person is capable of and committed to a life of consecrated celibacy with the lifelong sexual abstinence it entails and whether, in practicing this celibacy, he or she becomes a psychosexually mature and integrated person who can be trusted in ministry and community."
As for the hush money, Schneiders wrote, "This settlement was obviously not a payment of damages or an assumption of fees for therapy, in other words an admission of abuse or assault. It was a payment in exchange for Marcoux’s silence about the incident with a stipulation that if he broke that silence the money would be returned.
"If the accuser had had any legitimate reason for exposing the archbishop, he should have and could have refused any such payment and come forward pressing charges."
Noted Schneiders of Marcoux, "He was an adult when the so-called offense happened and was 20 years older when he revealed it."
Schneiders summed up, "So, if this is not a case of sexual assault, child abuse, a pattern of serial and promiscuous violation of a celibate commitment, endangerment of the vulnerable through secrecy, financial dishonesty or fraud, what is it?
"It seems... that Weakland, at least objectively, committed a serious personal sin, a violation of his religious vow of consecrated celibacy, some 20 years ago.
"Whatever happened should not have. He came to his senses, acknowledged his guilt to God, himself and his accomplice, decided to end the relationship, and did so."
LifeSiteNews acknowledged, "It was later revealed that Marcoux and Weakland had engaged in a mutually consensual homosexual relationship ended by Weakland in 1980."
However, the money used to pay off Marcoux seems to have come from Archdiocese funds, rather than from earnings Weakland made as a speaker, as the archbishop had claimed.
LifeSiteNews noted that Weakland had vowed to direct money from his memoir to the Catholic Community Foundation.
Both LifeSiteNews and the Associated Press noted that Weakland had admitted in a deposition from November, 2008, that he had personally enabled abusive priests by moving them from parish to parish.
The AP article carried a quote from Weakland that said, "Any deposition is just a part of a whole picture and that picture has not been painted yet. And anybody can take out of that any sentence they want.
"I try to deal with this, I hope in an honest way, admitting my weaknesses in not being able to see this earlier, but at the same time doing what I could confront it," Weakland continued, adding, "I refused to let myself become a victim and refused to let myself become angry.
"I want to take responsibility but I want to move on."
LifeSiteNews quoted Catholic World News and Catholic World Report editor Philip Lawlor, who said, "What is truly astonishing and deeply offensive, is the archbishop’s suggestion to a reporter that he wanted to avoid becoming a ’victim’ of the sex-abuse scandal.
"By shuffling priests who were known to be predators, and by misappropriating diocesan funds, he acted as a leading victimizer, not a victim."
The article went on to juxtapose the Vatican’s ban on gays from entering seminaries with a study that claimed that up to 90% of victims in the pedophile priest scandal were adolescent boys.
However, the LifeSiteNews article did not mention other studies that show that well over 90% of pedophiles identify as heterosexual.
Weakland indicated that his intent was not to encourage anti-gay rhetoric.
"I was very careful and concerned that the book not become a Jerry Springer, to satisfy people’s prurient curiosity or anything of this sort," the archbishop was quoted as saying in the AP article.
"At the same time, I tried to be as honest as I can."
The AP article cited Weakland as calling for a more open and honest discussion about gay priests, without lapses into "hysteria" that gay priests would automatically prove to be pedophiles.
The AP article noted that according to the author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," Donald Cozzens, up to half of Catholic priests may be homosexual.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.