Rembert Weakland

Rembert George Samuel Weakland (April 2, 1927 – August 22, 2022) was an American Benedictine monk who served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 to 2002. Shortly before his mandatory retirement at the age of 75, it was revealed in the press that Weakland had conducted a sexual relationship with a seminarian, Paul Marcoux, several decades before, and that the diocese had paid $450,000 to Marcoux to settle litigation stemming from Marcoux's characterization of the affair as date rape.

Early life

He was born George Samuel Weakland in Patton, Pennsylvania, to Basil Weakland (1897–1932) and Mary Kane (1898–1978). He had four sisters, Leora, Elizabeth, Barbara, and Marian; and one brother, William. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Patton, and then enrolled at the minor seminary run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe.

Monastic life and priesthood

Following graduation in 1945, Weakland entered the novitiate of the archabbey, taking the religious name of Rembert. When he completed this initiation into monastic life on September 23 of the following year, he went on to study at Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Seminary, also run by the archabbey. He made his solemn profession as a monk on September 29, 1949, at Solesmes Abbey in France. He was then sent by the archabbot to study theology at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome.

On June 24, 1951, Weakland was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Simone Salvi, O.S.B., Abbot of Subiaco Abbey in Italy. He furthered his studies in music in Italy, France, and Germany, as well as at both the Juilliard School and Columbia University in New York City. During this period, while doing research at the British Library, he discovered the text of a medieval liturgical drama, the ''Play of Daniel'', for which he released an authoritative text with commentary. It came to be frequently staged by musical groups, such as the New York Pro Musica, which specialize in music from that era. From 1957 to 1963, he taught music at his '' alma mater'' of St. Vincent College.

Weakland was elected Coadjutor Archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey on June 26, 1963. He soon succeeded to the office and received the solemn blessing of an archabbot from the local bishop, William G. Connare of the Diocese of Greensburg, on August 29, 1963. Following this, he became the Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Vincent College. On May 8, 1964, he received a papal appointment as Consultor to the Commission for Implementing the '' Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy'' of the Second Vatican Council and was appointed a member of that commission in 1968.

On September 29, 1967, Weakland was elected the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, to which office he was later re-elected in 1973. During this period, he served as Chancellor '' ex officio'' of the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm. He also served as a member of the Vatican Council of Superiors General from 1968 until 1977. In 1968, Weakland presided over an international, inter-religious monastic conference near Bangkok, Thailand, at which the American Trappist monk and writer, Thomas Merton, died. He administered the Last Rites of the Catholic Church to Merton and arranged for the body to be flown back on a U.S. military airplane to the United States.

Archbishop of Milwaukee

On September 20, 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed Weakland the Archbishop of Milwaukee. He was consecrated on November 8, in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist by Archbishop Jean Jadot, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States. One of his first actions was to sell the four bedroom suburban home where his predecessor had lived and move to the cathedral rectory.

His tenure was divisive due to his pronounced liberal views and liturgical experiments. While unapproachable for some and jarring in his coverups for abusive priests, he also sought to reach Catholics on the margins of church and society. He gave support for the Milwaukee AIDS Project. Amidst abortion controversies, Weakland participated in public "listening sessions," encouraging Catholic women to share their views on the issue.

On December 21, 1999, Weakland received a Doctorate in Musicology – "with distinction" – from Columbia University, for his thesis on "The Office Antiphons of the Ambrosian Chant." He retired as archbishop in 2002. In July 2009, he published his memoirs under the title of ''A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop'' dealing with the issues of ongoing Church reform.

Illness and death

In his later years, Weakland was in poor health, being in hospice care in his condo in southwest Milwaukee. He died on August 22, 2022, at his residence in Greenfield, Wisconsin, following a long illness. A public Mass of Christian Burial was offered by Archbishop Listecki at the Milwaukee Cathedral on August 30, 2022, and Weakland's body was interred at the cemetery of St. Vincent Archabbey on September 1, 2022.

Public controversies

Sexual abuse scandal

In 1984, Weakland responded to teachers in a Catholic school who were reporting sexual abuse by local priests by stating "any libelous material found in your letter will be scrutinized carefully by our lawyers." The Wisconsin Court of Appeals rebuked him for this, calling his remarks "abrupt" and "insensitive".Dave Umhoefer, "Scandal casts new light on Weakland's statements", '' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', May 26, 2002. In 1994, Weakland said those reporting sexual abuse were "squealing". He later apologized for the remarks.

According to the '' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', a deposition released in 2009 revealed that Weakland shredded reports about sexual abuse by priests. Weakland admitted allowing priests guilty of child sex abuse to continue as priests without warning parishioners or alerting the police.Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Former Catholic Bishop Of Milwaukee, Says He's Gay
He stated in his autobiography that in the early years of the sexual abuse scandal he did not understand that child sexual abuse was a crime.

Liturgical agenda

In 1965–66, Weakland served as president of the Church Music Association of America. According to an account by Richard Schuler, a split emerged very quickly, with Weakland taking sharp exception to the "reactionary attitudes in liturgical thinking" that he said were present at the ''Consociato'' meeting. In interviews with the press, he expressed regret that the meeting failed to include modern music and dancing in its liturgical agenda. His views did not prevail within the CMAA, and so his presidency did not last.

In 2000, Weakland was a critic of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document ''Dominus Iesus'' on religious relativism. One of his last major actions as archbishop was effecting a controversial renovation of the historic Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee.

Retirement and scandal

Weakland retired on May 24, 2002, at the mandatory retirement age of 75. His retirement was overshadowed by revelations that he paid nearly a half million dollars of diocesan funds to prevent a lawsuit.NationalReview
Weakland stepped down soon after it was revealed that the diocese had paid $450,000 to Paul Marcoux, a former seminarian studying at Marquette University, to settle a claim he made against the archbishop more than two decades earlier stemming from a long-term relationship with Weakland. The archbishop admitted to the affair and apologized after the story broke. He came out as gay in 2009, in his memoir ''A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop''.

Following his retirement, Weakland twice announced he was moving to a Benedictine abbey – his former home at St. Vincent, the other St. Mary's Abbey in New Jersey – but both invitations were rescinded.

Removal of name from Archdiocese of Milwaukee

In March 2019, it was announced that the names of Weakland and former archbishop William Cousins would be removed from buildings in the archdiocese because they handled sex abuse cases badly. The Weakland Center, which houses parish offices and outreach initiatives, was renamed on March 22, 2019.

See also

* Catholic Church hierarchy
* Catholic Church in the United States
* Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
* List of Catholic bishops of the United States
* Lists of popes, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops
* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

References

External links

Archbishop Rembert Weakland
at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weakland, Rembert
1927 births
2022 deaths
People from Cambria County, Pennsylvania
American Benedictines
Saint Vincent College alumni
Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm alumni
Columbia University alumni
Abbots Primate
20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States
Roman Catholic archbishops of Milwaukee
Benedictine bishops
Writers from Pennsylvania
Writers from Milwaukee
Catholics from Pennsylvania
LGBT bishops
LGBT Roman Catholic clergy
LGBT people from Pennsylvania