Beyond parody...

The former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee, who resigned in 2002 in a sex and financial scandal, admits in an upcoming memoir that he is a practising homosexual.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland said he wanted to be candid about "how this came to life in my own self, how I suppressed it, how it resurrected again".

His new book A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop has just been published.

Appointed archbishop in 1977, Weakland stepped down in May 2002, soon after Paul Marcoux, a former Marquette University theology student, revealed he was paid $450,000 out of Diocesan funds by Weakland to settle a sexual assault claim he made against the archbishop more than two decades earlier.

Weakland was later compelled to apologize for concealing the payment and to resign. Weakland was also accused of moving around the diocese priests suspected or accused of abusing minors.

Weakland is now 82, and is planning a move to St. Mary's Abbey in Morristown, New Jersey, from the private house he has occupied since his retirement.

Weakland admits to several such affairs whilst he was the Archbishop. Earlier he had already admitted in court papers that he had assigned a priest convicted of abuse back to active ministry without notifying parishioners.

Weakland has been an enthusiastic supporter of liberal moral, social and liturgical causes and has publicly defend many dissident practices and has warmly praised numerous disloyal Catholics.

Many critics during his pontificate have been proved right, despite Weakland's earlier denials, but Weakland has shown no sorrow or remorse toward them nor has he apologised for his deception and devious misconduct.

On the contrary, Weakland even goes so far as to blame the Church for his own failings accusing the Church of being too rigid and conservative. Apparently, this excuses his taking nearly half a million from Diocesan funds to cover up his own sexual misconduct.

There does not appear yet to have been any apology from either the Archdiocese or from Rome to the Catholics of Milwaukee Diocese, still less to those critics of Weakland who were so marginalised and railed against by him and his allies during his pontificate.

Weakland's case again demonstrates how there is one rule for the orthodox laity and clergy and quite another for the heterodox and abusive clergy, especially if they occupy high rank in the Church.

It is impossible to escape the conclusion that corruption of a high order runs like a vein through parts of the modern Church.

It will remain so unless and until Rome applies proper discipline to abusive and heterodox clergy. They will continue laughingly to thumb their nose at the Church and to abuse and oppress the orthodox, loyal Faithful, for the most part with almost complete impunity.

That the open scandal of such corruption is causing immense damage to the Church need hardly be stated, so obvious is it.

Yet there are still some who think that the chief problem for the Church today is the return of the traditionalists.

You can bet your boots Rembert Weakland thinks so, too!

St Michael the Archangel, pray for us!


...