Former Catholic head of Milwaukee admits he's gay

[manualman]

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. 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.

Those were my words to my wife exactly.

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.

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).

There would not have been a settlement if Weakland had not been in a position of at least some authority over the ‘lover.’ That’s the only way the payoff even marginally escapes the status of embezzlement. The pattern of a predator is to seek positions where they hold positions of authority over a pool of potential victims. I learned this courtesy of my local parish abuse prevention program! There’s irony for you.

 

[alekzander]

The one thing that I remember about Weakland was that he was very LIBERAL.I knew a guy that went to a seminary and he told me he could not believe how many of the guys in there were gay.

 

[Ana]

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).

It’s possible that it was simply a lovers quarrel, but I thought the payoff (puke) was for sexual assault?

 

[JimG]

Would everyone here enjoy hearing about my love-life – present and past – including the scandalous and sinful parts? I seriously doubt it.

Only if you are a celebrity or a well-known Catholic cleric. On the other hand, narcissism seems to be the order of the day for everybody.

 

[VanDoodah]

What a surpise - Catholic homophobes.

If homosexuality is so immoral, then God must have made a mistake.

 

[wapsi]

If homosexuality is so immoral, then God must have made a mistake.

You are apparently unfamiliar with Christianity. A central theme is that God gives us burdens which we are expected to carry in this life. Homosexuality is an especially heavy burden in that celibacy is required. That God gives some people this burden does not mean that God made a mistake. The mistake is made by people who believe that such a burden is actually a license to ignore God’s will.

 

[manualman]

What a surpise - Catholic homophobes.

If homosexuality is so immoral, then God must have made a mistake.

What a surprise, a condescending and smug atheist who knows NOTHING about the man in question. Perhaps those of us who have lived under his jurisdiction have a little more to go on than mere prejudice, hmmm?

Come to think of it, isn’t the definition of prejudice a pre-determination about someone based on a label before any real facts are known? Doesn’t that describe YOU better than those posting here?

 

[mja2]

I’m a lesbian trapped in a mans body, thank you for sharing… now go back to your closet… thank you.

 

[Ana]

What a surpise - Catholic homophobes.

If homosexuality is so immoral, then God must have made a mistake.

My son has Type 1 Diabetes. This is an abnormality. He was prone to it by heredity and it was triggered by his environment. God NEVER makes a mistake, But he does ALLOW particular things to happen, even sickness, even (gasp) … evil.

 

[Bennie_P]

I not going to read his book and his sex life at this point really doesn’t matter, except this just goes to show that ones that live in a sexually sinful life always commits many other sins with it, doesn’t matter if they are gay or straight. He has admitted to lying to the faithful, stealing from the faithful and being a total hypocrite while leading his flock. This was a man, I say was for I don’t know where his heart is at today and I don’t care, for that is currently between him and our God, but his life is another example of how uncontroled sexually focused wants will create great evil. I just wonder how many Catholics and other Christians have been hurt from this witness or lack of witness?

It continues to give ammunition to the enemies of the Church, priest which have uncontrollable sexual appetites, need to learn to step down, If they are straight or gay. For it is obviously clear, he only tried to hide this and not deal with it in a honest manner, which for certain clouded his judgement throughout his career.

May God have mercy on all of us in the American Catholic Church.

 

[Bennie_P]

What a surpise - Catholic homophobes.

If homosexuality is so immoral, then God must have made a mistake.

You need to read the rules of the forum, it is improper to call people crazie or infer they have a mental disease on this forum. You owe all the Catholics on this forum an appolgy. And probably a few non-Catholics also.

God doesn’t make mistakes He brought you here to be with many just like you, the rest of us sinners.

Welcome aboard…

 

[Jaypeeto4]

Pardon me,
but isn’t this the SAME Rembert Weakland who took a beautiful Cathedral in Milwaukee and , in the name of “renovation” (and in direct disobedience to a Vatican Directive),
GUTTED the interior of the Cathedral, replacing it with obscene “modern” art so awful that even the Crucifix looks something like a cross between a Picasso piece and the scribblings of a 4 year old child?

Good riddance to this man. May God have mercy on his soul.

 

[wapsi]

Pardon me,
but isn’t this the SAME Rembert Weakland who took a beautiful Cathedral in Milwaukee and , in the name of “renovation” (and in direct disobedience to a Vatican Directive),
GUTTED the interior of the Cathedral, replacing it with obscene “modern” art so awful that even the Crucifix looks something like a cross between a Picasso piece and the scribblings of a 4 year old child?

Do you mean this?



There is a plaque on the left side of the main door which reads:

“This Cathedral was restored, not without difficulty, exactly according to the norms of liturgical renewal established by Vatican Council II and solemnly and joyously inaugurated and rededicated on February 9, 2002, by the Archbishop and Ordinary, Rembert G. Weakland, OSB.”

stjohncathedral.org/tour/enter2.htm

I can understand objections to the crucifix, but I think the cathedral looks beautiful.

 

[tuviskazinai]

First of all, let me just put out there that I am no huge fan of Bishop Weakland. Most of his politics, the way he broke his vow of chastity and then stole money from the diocese to cover up his own indiscretions, and probably certain of his motivations in writing this book are deeply objectionable. And yet, it is clear that he is broken and probably repentant. Who wouldn’t be, in his situation? Publicly disgraced, rejected and sued by the man he loved and thought loved him in return… He is deeply in need of our prayers.

I think that he may have a lot to share with us. From what I’ve read, his goals in writing are twofold:

1. To expose certain wrongdoings in the Roman Curia, which included basically a “don’t ask, don’t tell” position on homosexual prelates which made him feel incapable of going to them with his same-sex attraction. To hear him tell it, the Curia – including some rather rough treatment at the hands of the Holy Father, John Paul II – left him without a safety net or anyone to trust in Rome. We could blame Bishop Weakland for his own sins if this same “cover-up culture” in the Church wasn’t also responsible for perpetuating other priests’ sexual abuse of thousands of young men and children, one of the worst scandals in the Church’s history.
2. To articulate an anguish which is not only his own, but that of hundreds of millions of Catholics. As he puts it (cited in the New York Times):
   “If we say our God is an all-loving god,” he said, “how do you explain that at any given time probably 400 million living on the planet at one time would be gay? Are the religions of the world, as does Catholicism, saying to those hundreds of millions of people, you have to pass your whole life without any physical, genital expression of that love?”
   Now, naturally most people on this thread would say yes, that is what the religions of the world are saying. But I think many of us, who don’t realize how lucky we are to be heterosexual, are often viciously insensitive when we paint practicing homosexuals as people who want nothing but sex and simply lack the self-discipline to abstain from intercourse whenever the feeling strikes them. Homosexuals do not simply crave sex. These people have an emotional desire for companionship, and that genuine longing for lifelong companionship and love is a horribly honest yearning to have to repress. As Bishop Weakland puts it, he never could have guessed that the bishop’s office would be so deeply lonely; indeed, the world must seem a cold, bleak, lonesome place to those who are born with a condition that makes them ineligible, in the eyes of the Church, to live in an open relationship with the person they love.

Again, you might not think that Weakland is on the right side of these issues, and I don’t know what I think about many of these questions, myself. But they are important questions that need to be addressed, and I think that tens of thousands of Catholics are leaving the Church every year because no one in the hierarchy seems human enough to ask them. So maybe we should reserve our judgment on this poor, broken man until we’ve read what he has to say? It could be that he can teach us something which a “perfect” Catholic who’s never run up against Church doctrine couldn’t teach us.

Peace,
+AMDG+

 

[Zagloba]

[SNIP} So maybe we should reserve our judgment on this poor, broken man until we’ve read what he has to say? It could be that he can teach us something which a “perfect” Catholic who’s never run up against Church doctrine couldn’t teach us.

Peace,
+AMDG+

Wow.

NYT article- nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15weakland.html?_r=1

“Milwaukee archdiocese had paid { } $450,000 years before to keep quiet about his affair with the archbishop — an affair the man was now calling date rape.”

“Archbishop Weakland was among those who publicly questioned the need for a male-only celibate priesthood.”

"In Milwaukee, Peter Isely, the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said Archbishop Weakland ultimately failed his people.
Mr. Isely pointed out that while Archbishop Weakland was waiting for the Vatican courts to defrock abusive priests, he allowed them to continue working in ministry without informing parishioners of their past. And he said the $450,000 payment was particularly galling to victims because many received “no compensation whatsoever.”

At this time when we rank and file Catholics have to shift through the non doctrinal opinions of the likes of Kmiec, Biden, Pelosi and unfortunately some current priests and Bishops. The last thing we need is someone trying to take advantage of possible Catholic doctrinal confusion to try to gloss over: lack of self control, embezzelment, cover-up/lying, and possible date rape.

BTW: Sad for Weakland that the Papal Nuncio who he says told him to lie has been dead for 3 years. Guess the Archbishop couldn’t type fast enough so that the person he smears could respond.
[/quote]

 

[manualman]

Funny, I don’t believe I’ve ever met a “perfect catholic who hasn’t run up against catholic doctrine” before. ALL virtues are hard to live by and ALL vices are the result of taking the easy way. I’ve sure got MY share of things that are wrong and I must struggle against.

You commit the same offense you decry in others. You minimize the struggles, suffering and difficulties of those who refuse to take the world’s view on sexual morality instead of the Church’s. And then denounce them as insensitive, uncaring and non-reflective.

You imply that the loneliness of being gay in a bishop’s office is the real reason for the abuses committed but don’t seem to realize that celibate heterosexual bishops face the SAME loneliness! Compassion is a good thing, but enabling and rationalizing are not compassionate. Every bishop knows he should have a spiritual director to do what you seem to think “Rome” should have been doing: assist him in hearing genuine conscience, not rationalizing.

Weakland is not Darth Vader. He’s a well meaning man who genuinely wants what is best for people and wants knowledge, peace, love and justice to be the dominating virtues in the world. His fatal flaw was to trust in his own judgement over divine revelation in implementing those benign goals. NOT coincidentally, that same sentence perfectly describes the original sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden. Think about it.

 

[tuviskazinai]

Wow.

NYT article- nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15weakland.html?_r=1

“Milwaukee archdiocese had paid { } $450,000 years before to keep quiet about his affair with the archbishop — an affair the man was now calling date rape.”

“Archbishop Weakland was among those who publicly questioned the need for a male-only celibate priesthood.”

"In Milwaukee, Peter Isely, the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said Archbishop Weakland ultimately failed his people.
Mr. Isely pointed out that while Archbishop Weakland was waiting for the Vatican courts to defrock abusive priests, he allowed them to continue working in ministry without informing parishioners of their past. And he said the $450,000 payment was particularly galling to victims because many received “no compensation whatsoever.”

At this time when we rank and file Catholics have to shift through the non doctrinal opinions of the likes of Kmiec, Biden, Pelosi and unfortunately some current priests and Bishops. The last thing we need is someone trying to take advantage of possible Catholic doctrinal confusion to try to gloss over: lack of self control, embezzelment, cover-up/lying, and possible date rape.

BTW: Sad for Weakland that the Papal Nuncio who he says told him to lie has been dead for 3 years. Guess the Archbishop couldn’t type fast enough so that the person he smears could respond.

First of all, it wasn’t date rape. That accusation came and went like the wind. They had a consensual romantic relationship for twenty years, and it was horrible enough without our adding false accusations.

Secondly, I agree with you that the guy lacked self-control and was an embezzler, and his understanding of the Church isn’t anything close to my own – like I said in my first paragraph. Or do you think that calling someone “this poor, broken man” is a term of praise and adulation?

But even given all that, I think that you’re overstating the amount of “sifting” we have to do. No one goes to Biden or Pelosi on matters of doctrine! You may not agree with Kmiec, but he is a brilliant legal mind and a good Catholic with many interesting things to say. But anyway, that’s not the point…my point is just that Weakland is going to touch on two extremely difficult, and extremely important, questions in his book, and will give his side of the story along the way. I think that in a spirit of Christian charity we can afford to at least listen to what he has to say (he was even a bishop once, after all), and then make up our minds about him (if we must).

Not to go all “Vatican II” on you, but I have to take my inspiration from Gaudium et Spes:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men.

Peace,
+AMDG+

 

[tuviskazinai]

You commit the same offense you decry in others. You minimize the struggles, suffering and difficulties of those who refuse to take the world’s view on sexual morality instead of the Church’s. And then denounce them as insensitive, uncaring and non-reflective.

I definitely didn’t mean to generalize, and if I’ve offended, then I apologize. But I think we can be honest with ourselves, too: there is a lot of homophobia among many Catholics (I am not saying that Church teaching on the matter is wrong!), and gay Catholics feel excluded from the Church community. I don’t mean to minimize anyone’s struggles, but I think that both sides of the debate could do more to appreciate the other side’s difficulties and issues.

You imply that the loneliness of being gay in a bishop’s office is the real reason for the abuses committed but don’t seem to realize that celibate heterosexual bishops face the SAME loneliness!

You’re right, this was poorly worded. And you’re right, probably all bishops get lonely. But I think that being gay carries with it additional stigmas, additional feelings of being misunderstood, that a chaste heterosexual simply doesn’t have to deal with. (I mean, we call homosexuals “objectively disordered” – imagine living with that for a day, much less your entire lifetime.) And maybe Weakland’s experience both as a gay man and as someone in a very lonely office (admittedly, the same office held by heterosexual bishops) can shed some light on the loneliness that gay men and women face in American society. I think that we need more discussion of this question in the Church, not less.

Every bishop knows he should have a spiritual director to do what you seem to think “Rome” should have been doing: assist him in hearing genuine conscience, not rationalizing.

I agree, although my understanding of his claims in the article was that he got to a point where the Vatican should have gotten involved, because his affair was affecting his sacred office and not just his personal life.

Weakland is not Darth Vader. He’s a well meaning man who genuinely wants what is best for people and wants knowledge, peace, love and justice to be the dominating virtues in the world. His fatal flaw was to trust in his own judgement over divine revelation in implementing those benign goals. NOT coincidentally, that same sentence perfectly describes the original sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden. Think about it.

I think there’s a lot of compassion in this paragraph…but probably he’s been hearing things like that for the last seven years, and who knows? I’m just saying it’s possible that if we listened to his side of things, we’d see a much more complicated picture develop. We don’t know until we hear him out.

Like Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men…“I’m just saying it’s pahs-sible!”



Peace,
+AMDG+

 

[Zagloba]

You may not agree with Kmiec, but he is a brilliant legal mind and a good Catholic with many interesting things to say.
Peace,
+AMDG+

That’s exactly the trouble, he is a brilliant legal mind that has some Catholics confused on how to stand on the abortion issue. Save me from professed “good” Catholics. Both Biden and Pelosi say they are good Catholics.

BTW I admit I don’t believe the date rape charge but Weakland has lied before.

I don’t believe this book of his will help in any of the discussions you mentioned because I doubt Weaklands motives will be anything but self-serving. As a Bishop he shouldn’t be, at the best confusing, at the worse misleading the flock. He has a duty to do the opposite.
Its bad enough we have theologians (Maguire at ND) doing this to us.

 

[tuviskazinai]

Save me from professed “good” Catholics.

hehe…I know a lot of Kmiec supporters who would say the same thing.

Biden and Pelosi both support the legalization of something called categorically wrong by the Magisterium. Kmiec does not. He is adamantly pro-life; he just differed with certain Catholics on the best prudential decision to make in the 2008 election. But that’s another discussion, one many threads have been devoted to already.

I share your disappointment that so many Catholics disregard Church teaching on abortion, contraception, divorce, etc. Still, I don’t think we can afford not to welcome discussion on these issues, especially the more nuanced ones. For instance, there is such a need for a long discussion about how the Church is going to relate to the homosexual community in the next hundred years or so. I have a million thoughts on the issue (none of which contradict Church teaching), and I’m not even gay! I may just be a dumb sheep in the “flock,” but I for one am very, very interested in hearing what gay clergy and former clergy have to say about the proper pastoral approaches to homosexual individuals. I think it’s one of the three of four biggest issues facing the 21st century Church.

And if Weakland turns out to be way off-base or else just plain self-serving – and you may be right with those accusations – then so be it. I’d just rather give him the benefit of the doubt and read his book before jumping to conclusions. Otherwise, we risk making the same mistakes all those “voice of the faithful” and “bottom-up” laity advocates make, only on the other side of the political spectrum: i.e., holding a bishop to a set of demands and expectations that we have for his proper conduct, rather than listening to what he has to say and, out of respect for his office, trying our best to understand it.

A liberal, scandalized bishop is still a bishop, after all!

Peace,
+AMDG+