MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter
[Archbishop Weakland deposition]
[exhibits]
Kate Simmons | Jul. 2, 2013
In the 1980s, the bishops of the Milwaukee archdiocese dealt with priests who sexually abused minors in much the same way they handled those who were alcoholics or even those who had credit problems: They assumed the issue could be resolved through therapy or similar means, former Archbishop Rembert George Weakland said in a 2011 deposition released this week.
“We were probably all of us naive in thinking that it was a question of willpower and a question of self-discipline,” Weakland said. “I handled cases [in the 1980s] thinking, hoping, praying that it would be the last one I would have to deal with.”
He said the bishops viewed pedophilia as an “affliction” and, following practices used with other issues, did not consider it necessary to alert parishioners to previous instances of sexual misconduct.
“There are a lot of things that when you make an assignment you don’t disclose,” Weakland said in the deposition. “If they had alcohol problems in the past, if they had credit problems with their checking accounts … I don’t think one makes a list of the foibles and the problems that way so it would not have been customary to make that kind of a profile of a priest.”
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