Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop Sklba Retires, by Annysa Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 20, 2010

Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop Sklba Retires

By Annysa Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
October 20, 2010

http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/105273808.html

Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba has served under three Milwaukee archbishops.

Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba, an erudite scholar and national voice for ecumenical relations whose reputation was tarnished in recent years by the clergy sex abuse scandal, has retired, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Tuesday.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Sklba's retirement Monday in Rome. All Catholic bishops are required to submit their retirements when they turn 75, which Sklba did on Sept. 11.

In a letter to the faithful on the archdiocese website, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki called Sklba selfless and a faithful servant, and said he would continue to help out in the local church into 2011.

"Bishop Sklba has combined an extraordinary pastoral approach with the keen sense of a teacher," said Listecki.

Victims of clergy sex abuse offered a harsher view of his tenure, accusing Sklba of participating with then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland in an alleged coverup of numerous cases of sex abuse by local clergy.

Weakland testified in a deposition in 2008 that Sklba was his "go-to guy" for sex abuse investigations, and Sklba has acknowledged in a 2002 letter to an abusive priest's parish that he accepted "my own share in responsibility for the culture of silence in the church."

"Bishop Sklba has yet to come forward and explain to Catholics fully what his involvement in these cases was," said John Pilmaier, co-director of the local chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "He owes that not just to families but to the greater community."

Sklba acknowledged the sex abuse crisis in his letter announcing his retirement posted on the archdiocese website, calling it a "deep and painful immersion into the Lord's Paschal Mystery."

"Through it all, we know that our God is always and ever an almighty source of healing and new beginnings," he said.

Born in Racine and educated in Rome, Sklba was one of the nation's youngest bishops when he was installed as auxiliary bishop in Milwaukee in 1979.

A scriptural scholar who holds degrees in theology and philosophy, Sklba has been active in the U.S. Conference of Bishops, the Catholic Bible Association of America and is considered a national voice in interreligious dialogue particularly among Jews and Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

"He's really made an outstanding contribution as an ecumenist," said Father James Massa, secretariat for the Conference of Bishops' Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue.

Massa also described Sklba as "a Vatican II priest" who was formed by the liberalizing tenets of the Second Vatican Council, a watershed event in the Catholic Church that is still being debated.

"He had to struggle with all of the effects of the council, too, of the difficulty implementing those changes," Massa said. "He's been a careful interpreter of the council. He was on the cutting edge of change in that period after the council. He understood it well and enthusiastically embraced the reforms?.?.?.? and would have been a sympathetic listener to the more liberal, progressive interests in the church that felt the council had not gone far enough."

Sklba served as auxiliary bishop under Weakland, Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Listecki.

He signed off on Weakland's $450,000 payment in hush money to Paul Marcoux, who had accused Weakland of sexual abuse. Sklba led the archdiocese in the months after Weakland's retirement amid that sex scandal, turning over the reins to Archbishop Timothy Dolan in August 2002.

In his recently published book, "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim's Church," Weakland wrote that Sklba's ordination as bishop almost never happened. According to the book, Sklba had chaired a committee of American biblical scholars that "issued a document stating that from a strictly biblical point of view, the ordination of women could not be decided one way or the other. But a codicil was added that upset the pope: The committee further stated that a positive answer would be more in keeping with the biblical evidence."

Pope John Paul II decided to cancel the ordination, prompting Weakland and Sklba to fly to Rome. Ultimately, after making Sklba explain his position, the pope "finally gave in," according to the book.

Weakland went on to write of Sklba: "His knowledge of scripture and his personal sanctity were always evident. In this selection as auxiliary bishop, God was indeed good to me - and to the people of Milwaukee."