Former Catholic head of Milwaukee admits he's gay

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Elizabeth502

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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090512/ap_on_re/us_rel_gay_archbishop

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To me, this whole story is symptomatic of the distinctly American disease called, I Need to Publicize My Identity Crisis and You’ll Hear About It Whether You Want to or Not.

Has the whole world lost any sense of personal privacy, including members of the RCC? Or am I just hopelessly old-fashioned? I absolutely see why anyone, gay or straight, and in or out of a clergy, would want to reveal himself/herself to one’s close associates (friends in & out of the organization, as well as family). In order to be loved and accepted, it’s important to be known as one truly is. But it seems to me that this is where it should stop.

And why shouldn’t straight clergy also “come out” publicly and reveal how straight they are, how much angst they had or have, how conflicted they were/are about their straight inclinations vs. their inability to marry a woman due to their freely chosen station?

The “news” would be relevant to the public at large if the guy were leading a charge for an actively gay clergy, but as far as I read, he is not doing so. Let’s see, I guess we’re all so self-important now that, like ex-Presidents and other people of great political power, we should all write intensely personal memoirs for all to read – including people who are complete strangers to us. It’s necessary to share our sexual fantasies or inclinations.:rolleyes: And because why? (Remind me again.)

Would everyone here enjoy hearing about my love-life – present and past – including the scandalous and sinful parts? I seriously doubt it.
 
I think the positive part would be: it is an indication to us what must be going on the lives of those priests, theologians, nuns, and bishops who don’t seem to be catholic in their judgement. Giving communion to pro-abortion politicians, and other unusual attitudes for catholic clergy. I wouldn’t be surprise if the president of Notre Dame turnout to have something strange uncatholic in his private life. I am sure this ‘liberal’ label always hides some needs to justify oneself about something…
I think it is a curse of receiving communion unworthly for years… St. Paul warned us!

On the positive side, though, we should seriously pray for our shepheards, mostly when they seem distant fromt the faith they are supposed to preach, who knows what is going on in their lives… We should be more quickly to pray for them than critisize them.

God bless
 
You omitted the word ‘former’ from your post title.

Every man and his dog knew that Weakland was same sex attracted.

This ‘new disclosure’ is just advance publicity for his book.
 
I’m not familiar with this Priest and I’m not sure that it was appropriate to write a tell-all book. Some things are better left unsaid. But this is what struck me after I read the link:

How great is our God!!! His is so merciful and kind and His grace is sufficent for sinners like this Priest, and his grace is sufficent for a sinner like me. My failures may not be as obvious and public as this former Archbishop, but I know what they are… so I take so much comfort in knowing that we are ALL a work in progress… I am, you are, even Archbishops are… we try, we fail, we try again. And all the while I know that God loves us so much. So I will pray for this dear old man. At 82, he’s nearing the end of his life and soon He will stand before God and I pray that he is able to do so completly reconcilled to Him and at peace.
 
Maybe I read a different news story. I will pray for this priest because charity is something we are all called to do. Yet, I believe that this book should never have been written nor published.

When reading the news story I did it seemed to me was that the words I and ME were mored important then the harm done to others.
 
yinekka said:
Every man and his dog knew that Weakland was same sex attracted.
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Therein lies the rub. If everybody already knew, one of three things was happening:

(1) Weakland was inappropriately (publicly) observed making overtures to other men.
(2) Weakland inappropriately disclosed his SSA to members of the public not of his confidential inner circle, prior to the “memoirs.”
(3) Someone in his inner circle breached confidence and good taste by disclosing such inclinations.

All three are scandal-producing. If #3 happened, that could additionally be detraction. If #2 happened, it was additionally self-serving.
How great is our God!!! His is so merciful and kind and His grace is sufficent for sinners like this Priest, and his grace is sufficent for a sinner like me.
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I appreciate your point, yellowbird, but I do believe most of us already make ourselves aware of this every day. Hopefully, no one beyond the age of 7 believed, before these “memoirs,” that the Archbishop was not a sinner like myself or themselves. Therefore, this tell-all book does not provide new information as to God’s mercy. If one has listened to Fr. John Corapi even once, he or she would need no further evidence as to the depths of God’s mercy (according to FJC), and how mercy can transform. If one has read one page of St. Paul, one page of Augustine’s Confessions, one learns the same information about the limitless and transformative power of divine mercy. And further, in the last 3 cases, their actions were already quite public, and the actions occurred *before *their conversions. None of them is an example of producing scandal & potentially causing disillusionment.

Of course, since I haven’t read the book and have no interest in doing so, I must distinguish between SSA (not sinful) and acting on it (an egregious level of sinfulness in active clergy). So yellowbird’s point may not be operative if this is merely an attraction confession. (Still inappropriate, still self-serving in the public arena.)

When one writes anything, even a private memoir to be read after one’s death, one has to do so with charity toward the readers in mind: Will I hurt, scandalize, disillusion anyone I love or anyone I may still influence, by writing this? Thus, if one’s parents broke a wedding vow and the children never previously knew it, I would hope that such parents would spare the children such unsolicited information, out of charity.
 
Weakland is widely known in the Milwaukee area as the guy who gave silent approval to abortion and contraception by pulling the rug our from under all efforts to speak the truth on those topics and widely accomodating the dissenters. He so thoroughly destroyed the diocesan seminary that for the latter half of his tenure it was considered a GREAT year if ONE guy was ordained in any given year. It’s no surprise to me personally that he’d have an illicit affair and then use half a million dollars in diocesan money to cover it up. Shouldn’t he be in jail for embezzlement?
 
manualman said:
Weakland is widely known in the Milwaukee area as the guy who gave silent approval to abortion and contraception by pulling the rug our from under all efforts to speak the truth on those topics and widely accomodating the dissenters. He so thoroughly destroyed the diocesan seminary that for the latter half of his tenure it was considered a GREAT year if ONE guy was ordained in any given year. It’s no surprise to me personally that he’d have an illicit affair and then use half a million dollars in diocesan money to cover it up. Shouldn’t he be in jail for embezzlement?
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Is this guy for real? Apparently he was quite the star in Milwaukee according to our liberal friends who live there. In fact, it was Weakland who influenced their moving to Milwaukee from Minneapolis.

This is a good example of “you reap what you sow”. By releasing his book now, Weakland is just brushing his own ego. If I were a Catholic in that diocese, and if everyone knew about his homosexual philanderings, I would have screamed to somebody what was going on even if it landed on deaf ears. The Church owes an apology for this man’s immoral behavior. And how CONVENIENT that Weakland could retire and have Rome accept it immediately once the scandal of the boyfriend payout was revealed. How disgusting.
 
It’s really hard to believe some of these guys are successors of the Apostles!! Can you imagine St. Peter or St. Paul writing a tell all book about their personal lives? The fact of the matter is, we know almost next to nothing about these men except what is in the New Testament accounts. Their only mission was to spread the Word of God, to live and die for God.

This book smacks of this man’s own ego. His gay agenda is more important than God, the Church, etc. What exactly is this book going to accomplish? Is it going to bring anyone closer to God? Doubt it.
 
I am going to be honest. Although I probably won’t, there is a small part of me that would read the book if it fell in my lap. Not because he is gay, not because he is an ArchBishop, but because as a victim of sexual crimes, I am interested to see the perspective of a sexual predator. It is something I have never been able to comprehend. I am interested in whether he knows it was wrong, and how he justified it to himself. But it is true … I find the whole thing nauseating. (I couldn’t find a puke smilie.)
 
Elizabeth502 said:
I appreciate your point, yellowbird, but I do believe most of us already make ourselves aware of this every day. Hopefully, no one beyond the age of 7 believed, before these “memoirs,” that the Archbishop was not a sinner like myself or themselves. Therefore, this tell-all book does not provide new information as to God’s mercy. .
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To clarify: I SAID a tell-all book was NOT a good idea - that some things are better left unsaid. I am NOT defending his book.

I’m not even defending him - the man. I am thanking God for His mercy and forgiveness… something that this man, and all of us should avial ourselves of. Sorry if my gushing about God’s grace was redundant to all “beyond the age of 7.” Apparently there is clearly something wrong with me because when I read of the life this man has lived, I appreciated the reminder. :rolleyes:
 
yellowbird, I don’t think it’s necessary to get overly exercised about this. I didn’t mean that your own sense of remembrance of God’s mercy belongs to an under-7-year old. I meant that there is zero justification for his book on any grounds, including any reminders of God’s mercy for the general public, because he provides no revelations about that, and that any (positive) remembrance of God’s mercy elicited is overshadowed by the (negative) egotism of the publication as well as the scandal resulting.

Peace.🙂

I appreciate turtle’s and ana’s posts. Well said, turtle. My point exactly. And I hardly think that with so little known about Peter’s private life, we don’t nevertheless have sufficient glimpse into God’s infinite mercy. The apostle who denied Christ thrice, yet was made head of the Church? I think that’s all we need to know about God’s eternal mercy. 🙂
 
manualman said:
Weakland is widely known in the Milwaukee area as the guy who gave silent approval to abortion and contraception by pulling the rug our from under all efforts to speak the truth on those topics and widely accomodating the dissenters. He so thoroughly destroyed the diocesan seminary that for the latter half of his tenure it was considered a GREAT year if ONE guy was ordained in any given year. It’s no surprise to me personally that he’d have an illicit affair and then use half a million dollars in diocesan money to cover it up. Shouldn’t he be in jail for embezzlement?
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More interesting poop on Weakland. He was like a rock star. Got standing ovations from his flock for admitting to sins and crimes that most find reprehensible.
blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/05/shocked-shocked-rembert-weakla_comments.html
 
No Elizabeth, I don’t want to know about your love life. I agree with you. I am weary from yet another book on the shelves about some person of public interest telling all when it comes to their sexual orientation. I assure you this is about money. Its always about money. Maybe he will donate the money from the sale of the book to the Diocese.
 
We all know enough priests who are - or we seriously suspect are - homosexual. Nothing new on that front. What caught my eye was that he secretly paid $450K of Archdiocesan money to keep his paramour quiet.

Maybe it’s because I find the sex drive understandable that I’m not too upset about that aspect of this story. (Maybe I’ve become inured to it - especially among the clergy?) It’s common for all humanity to deal with sex.

BUT this misuse of power and other people’s money for his own protection - why is no one else outraged at that?! You know the scandal was mostly about the Bishops misuse of power - most of them were not themselves engaged in abuse. His Excellency seems to be a part of both teams - the egocentric, arrogant power hungry enablers and an abuser. SHEESH!! This guy really has a nerve and an ego. Tell him to go find a Trappist cell somewhere and stay there until he’s paid back the $450K and atoned for misuse of his position all IN ADDITION to atonement for the abuse he himself did - then I might give him some ear!
 
I don’t understand why he had to broadcast his sexuality. What difference does it make? He’s supposed to be celibate anyway!

I mean no offense to homosexuals…I just don’t understand why it’s important.
 
turtle18 said:
It’s really hard to believe some of these guys are successors of the Apostles!!
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In fairness, some popes in history were worse. And then there is Judas. The office itself guarantees nothing about the man who holds it. What matters is that, in the long run, Grace holds the course of the ship steady. Catholicism is not like the televangelists. We are not a cult of personality. Jesus is our savior, not our pastors nor our bishops.
 
My buddy sent me a link a couple days ago to this story. Then last night I saw it on the news and all the newscaster were talking about the “HUGE SHOCK” of a bombshell that he’s gay. :hmmm: Apparently those of us in Wisconsin must have a short memory and forgot about how he ripped us off and used our money to try and hush his male lover.
yinekka said:
This ‘new disclosure’ is just advance publicity for his book.
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Those were my words to my wife exactly.
elgar said:
And how CONVENIENT that Weakland could retire and have Rome accept it immediately once the scandal of the boyfriend payout was revealed. How disgusting.
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If I recall correctly (and that may be a big if), his scandal hit, he asked for retirement and they told him not to let the door hit him in the backside on the way out.
Ana said:
Not because he is gay, not because he is an ArchBishop, but because as a victim of sexual crimes, I am interested to see the perspective of a sexual predator
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Unless he states differently in the book, I got the impression that he was dating this guy and when he tried to break it off, that’s when things hit the skids. And this guy was an adult, not a kid (not saying that there isn’t predatory behavior in colleges).
 
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