BishopAccountability.org
	The Blameless Game Milwaukee Journal Sentinel May 21, 2009 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/45782057.html Milwaukee's retired archbishop seems to point the finger of blame at everyone except himself. When retired Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland stood in the Cousins Center on May 31, 2002, and apologized for the scandal that ended his tenure, his humble mea culpa asking forgiveness from his flock drew a standing ovation. He seemed sincerely contrite for his inappropriate relationship with Paul Marcoux and willing to take responsibility for his mistakes in regard to that relationship and the 1998 $450,000 payoff to buy Marcoux's silence. He doesn't seem to bring the same contriteness to his just-published memoir, "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church," and his handling of priest sexual abuse cases in his archdiocese. In a New York Times interview about the book, Weakland pointed fingers everywhere except at himself. Weakland blames Rome for silence over the pedophilia scandal, blames psychologists and lawyers for practices such as moving pedophile priests from one parish to another, allowing them to continue to prey on children. He never seems to understand the point that he kept silent and he moved priests without regard to the consequences. The Vatican is not blameless, and bad advice was given by others. But ultimately, it was the responsibility of Weakland and other bishops and church leaders to protect children. Among Weakland's assertions in his memoir, according to a Journal Sentinel article, is this one: "We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature." In the 1970s? Really? Why not just ask a criminal lawyer or police officer? He also says that in the 1970s, he "naively" accepted the notion that victims would either forget or "grow out of" the abuse, and he blames the leniency shown by judges toward priests (and other professionals) in sex abuse cases for shaping his views on the perpetrators. His alleged naivete had outcomes he should own up to. During his tenure as archbishop, Weakland on occasion took courageous issue with injustice, going so far as to defy the Vatican at times. Sadly, he never brought that same courage to the sexual abuse of children by clergy. To this day, he still fails to take personal responsibility for that failure. And that's just one more shame in a long litany of shame.
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