In all of the long and trying events of the Scandal in the Church, the most difficult part for devout Catholics has been to know the truth, but be unable to utter it because the public mind had been propagandized into a particular view. This view is that the Church’s rigidity on sexual matters led to priests being unable to openly express their sexuality and this, in turn, led to the abuse of youngsters and to cap it all off, the Church cynically covered it up because it, as an institution, didn’t want to confront the fact that the Church’s teachings on sex will have to be changed to fit modern mores. This line of thinking has going for it only one thing – the kernel of truth that priests did, indeed, abuse minors. Other than that, it is nonsense from start to finish – and this nonsense is best illustrated by the autobiography of Archbishop Weakland:
It sounds like an over-the-top Tom Wolfe novel: a successor to the apostles conducts an affair with a male graduate student, is accused of “date rape” and emotional harm by said student, and raids the collection basket of the faithful to hush the student up, then, as the bishop settles into a cushy retirement, he pens a “coming out” memoir in praise of homosexual behavior, all the while retaining the canonical rights and privileges of a retired archbishop and receiving pats on the back from fellow clergy.
Alas, this is no racy and risible fiction; it is the real story of Archbishop Rembert Weakland. The retired archbishop of Milwaukee released June 15 his autobiography, A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop. In it he admits to several affairs with men, crowns himself the first voluntarily “out” bishop, and argues that the Church should endorse the “physical, genital expression” of homosexuality, as he put it to the New York Times in May.
As the article goes on to note, Weakland was the liberal’s liberal Catholic prelate – it was Weakland who was leading the charge to “modernize” the Church and bring it more in tune with, well, Oprah, I guess. It was Weakland who was strong in his condemnation of conservatism’s supposed greed and cruely…and while making such condemnation, Weakland was dipping in to the collection plate to pay hush money to his gay lover. Nothing so strongly illustrates what went wrong than the story of Weakland – a man who allowed himself to be enslaved the world, worked diligently to have others enslaved, caused untold damage to those who refused servitude, and now writes about what a swell guy he is and if only the Church would preach heresy, all would be well.
If you seek for the reason behind the late John Paul II’s insistence upon renewed discipline and orthodoxy, you need look no further: here is the reason. If you wonder why Benedict the XVI is following resolutely in these foot steps: here is the reason. It is only by a return to the most uncompromising orthodoxy that the Church will recover from this scandal. There is rising in the Church what is being called the “John Paul II generation” – young and vigorous priests and religious who are orthodox all down the line and who are starting to take over from the weak, liberal leaders who led the Church into disaster in the two decades immediately following Vatican II – a council, it should be noted, which was twisted out of recognition by liberal bishops such as Weakland; so twisted, indeed, that Weakland and his ilk had it legislating the opposite of what was decreed.
In this Age of Lies, the Rock of Truth may be submerged from time to time, but it remains a Rock, and it is coming back to the surface. It will take a generation for this shame to be washed away – Weakland will soon appear before the judgment seat of God, and I hope he fares well there…but I don’t wish myself ever to be in his shoes, that of a shepherd who led the flock astray.
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