Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Liturgical Reform and Aberrosexuality — On the Death of Rembert Weakland


Archabbot, Abbot General, Archbishop: The Benedictine Rembert Weakland had a sweeping career
.

(New York) The archbishop emeritus of Milwaukee, Msgr. Rembert Weakland, died last night.  He was involved in sex crimes, which promptly brought Jesuit James Martin, the figurehead of the Church gay lobby, to the scene to praise Weakland.

Monsignor Rembert Weakland was born in 1927 in the state of Pennsylvania.  In 1945 he entered the Archabbey of Saint Vincent in Latrobe and became a Benedictine.  In Solesmes he made his solemn vows in 1949 and was then sent to the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo, the Benedictine college in Rome.

Radical Progressive Ideas – Member of the Roman Consilium for Liturgical Reform


Rembert Weakland in the 60's

Ordained a priest in 1951, he continued his studies in various countries, including Germany.  He studied Church music and became a recognized expert on Gregorian chant.  In the course of his studies he discovered the high medieval spiritual drama "Ludus Danielis" in the British Library.

Returning to the USA, he first taught at St. Vincent College at his abbey.  The convention elected Weakland Archabbot and Pope Paul VI in 1963.  drew him in as a consultor to the Second Vatican Council.

In 1965/66 he was President of the Church Music Association of America, a presidency which quickly ended, however, because his ideas on music and dance were so radically progressive that he could not embrace them even in an "open-minded" climate then prevailing.

Paul VI called him for this.  In 1968 to the notorious Consilium for the implementation of the liturgical constitution, which worked out the liturgical reform of 1969 under the de facto leadership of its secretary Msgr. Annibale Bugnini.

The recommendation of Weakland was made by the Swiss Benedictine and Cardinal, Benno Gut when he took over the presidency of the Consilium.  Weakland had already succeeded Gut in 1967 as Abbot General of the Benedictine Order and Grand Chancellor of the Benedictine College of Sant'Anselmo.

Archbishop of Milwaukee

Paul VI  nominated Weakland archbishop of Milwaukee in 1977.  As such, he was criticized for the abuse of liturgy he practiced and tolerated and for the dubious decisions he made when renovating Milwaukee Cathedral.  For his part, he himself attracted attention with harsh criticism of the declaration Dominus Iesus of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is one of the most important documents of the pontificate of John Paul II and the tenure of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as prefect of the CDF.

During his episcopate and after his retirement in 2002, Weakland was repeatedly confronted with the accusation of having covered up sexual abuse by priests on minors, specifically homosexual abuse.  In his autobiography he confessed something astounding: During the first years of his tenure in Milwaukee he "didn't understand" that the sexual abuse of minors was a crime.  He transferred abusive priests from one parish to another without informing the new parish, let alone the police and prosecutors.



Weakland as Archbishop of Milwaukee

The protection of homosexual abusers obviously had a personal background.  Weakland retired on May 24, 2002, having reached the age of 75.  However, his resignation was overshadowed by a scandal.  It was revealed that the archbishop had paid $450,000 from the diocesan treasury to former Marquette University theology student Paul Marcoux.  In 1997, through resourceful lawyers, he entered into negotiations with the archbishop, threatening to accuse him of sexual abuse.  Weakland, on the other hand, claimed he had a long-standing homosexual relationship with Marcoux.

During his studies, Marcoux lived with a priest in a parish where he volunteered.  In 1979, when the pastor invited his archbishop to dinner, Marcoux and Weakland met for the first time.  According to Marcoux, who was 31 at the time, they "got along well straight away".  A few weeks later, Marcoux called the then 52-year-old Archbishop because, by his own account, he had considered entering the seminary.  The archbishop then invited him to dinner and over "several aperitifs and two bottles of wine" they "got closer".  Marcoux, who says he is bisexual and said he had just ended a homosexual affair with a Marquette University professor, was "frozen" because of the alcohol and respect for the office.  There were further "sexualized encounters" with the archbishop.  At some point he, Marcoux, realized that the Archbishop had "sexually abused" him.  The rest is American history.

Fr. James Martin, in play as soon as homosexuality is discussed

In 2009, Weakland, who may have been the victim of a profiteer to some degree, confessed in his memoir, Pilgrims in a Pilgrim Church.  Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop”  his homosexuality, from which he did not really distance himself.  The German edition was published in spring 2022 under the title "Life Between the Cracks: Memoirs of an Archbishop" in the Four Towers Publishing House of the Benedictine Abbey of Münsterschwarzach.

Weakland's successor as Archbishop of Milwaukee, Monsignor Jerome Edward Listecki, who has been in office since 2010, sees less reason to cherish the memory of his predecessor.  Because of the scandal, he decided to have the Weaklands name removed from the diocesan buildings.

That didn't stop Santa Marta-backed homophile Father James Martin SJ from praising Weakland - while specifically citing his scandalous conduct.  James Martin wrote on Twitter:

 “Archbishop Rembert Weakland has died.  The learned scholar, gifted minister and abbot primate of the Benedictines has had his legacy marred by revelations that he paid money to a man with whom he had a relationship.  I considered him a friend and mourn his loss.  Rest in peace."


 Weakland as Archbishop Emeritus

Reactions to the tweet varied.  One reads, "I hope his last years have been spiritually fruitful for him." Another puts it more bluntly:

 "The man embezzled $450,000 to pay for a secret gay lover and has never been held accountable.  This is clerical corruption at the highest level.  You are talking about clericalism!”

All attempts at justification, which Fr. James Martin found himself prompted by the violent reactions on Twitter, would be more credible - especially in their right approaches - if the impression of an interest-led action to serve the recognition of homosexuality would not overlay everything.

What other decisions, other than covering up sexual abuse by Milwaukee clerics, were made by Rembert Weakland as a result of his homosexual orientation is unknown.  What tolerance, preference or support did he therefore give to whom?  The spread of homo-heresy in the Church, as it took place in the USA in the 1970s in particular, is made up of a large number of hidden decisions.

 After his retirement, Weakland had been invited by two Benedictine abbeys to join them in retirement, his home Abbey of St. Vincent and the Abbey of St. Mary in New Jersey.  Both invitations were turned down by Weakland.

 Requiescat in pace.

 Text: Giuseppe Nardi

 Image: Riposte Catholique/Wikicommons/Youtube

Trans:  Tancred  vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG



25 comments:

Mary O'Brien said...

We had a wedding planner who told us that WEakland had Peyronie's disease. Didn't know what it was at the time. Wondered why he brought it up. Didn't make the connection with him being "light in the loafers." Was he a top or a bottom?

Damian Flynn said...

Eternal rest grant unto him, Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. RIP.

David O'Neill said...

Let us pray that he confessed his sins & received absolution before he died.

Dan said...

8/23 @ 6:44pm

That was some gossipy Wedding Planner.
Just curious just how the man's penile deformation figured in to planning for a wedding.

Just FYI: Peyronie's Disease affects men of any sexual proclivity and has nothing to do with their sexual desires.

Anonymous said...

More importantly, why would a man be a wedding planner?

Mary O’Brien said...

Dan:

The point was that he claimed to know. Straight men also have moles and birthmarks on their buttocks sometimes. But, how would a wedding planner know.

Anyone know where Weakland’s ashes are going to be spread?

Anonymous said...

Probably his favourite bathhouse

Gabby

Dan said...

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/242910630/rembert-george_samuel-weakland

Keep checking

Anonymous said...

His ashes will be in an urn on James Martin's fireplace mantle.
Right next to the tube of K-Y.

Tancred said...

Not so fast. Before we close the lid on his coffin.

When’s the Cadaver synod? I’d be more interested to know:

1. Did he make any sign of public contrition for protecting sex predators of children.

2. Did he repay the 400k he extorted from the laymen of Milwaukee.

3. Has there been a sign of divine displeasure?

Sounds to me that he carried on as before he was caught, living out a comfortable retirement of any well-paid gay functionary. Doesn’t bode well for his soul, and really, this whole thing is bad optics for the Catholic Church and less so for the Gather Us In brand of New Church.

J.V. said...

3. If there is a sign of Divine displeasure, I am sure that he has already seen it.

1. Of course, he wasn't sorry for protecting sex predators. Remember: He said that he didn't even know that it was a crime.

2. The 400K is long gone. No Liability Insurance company will cough up a dime, because of the circumstances.

The Catholic Church deserves all of the "bad optics". They created them.

Just be glad that the poor old mess is off this earth.

Tancred said...

J.V. I’m not so sure the Church deserves this. Our society widely defends and provides venues for the kinds sodomites who commit these crimes with impunity, in fact, your children are a lot safer in these respects in Catholic Schools than they are in publicly funded non-religious schools or Yeshivas

Hollywood, which does so much to attack the Catholic Church in the manor your seem to approve, is infested with child predators who aren’t even punished or receive light sentences. Never mind that most of the perpetrators are Jews.

Cadaver synod Hell, when’s the auto de fe?

J.V. said...

I could not agree with you more.
Pardon my manor that seemed to be approval. That was not my intention.
Realistically, Weakland was not just a product of the horrible revolution in the Catholic Church. He was one of it's architects.
His buddies in the Episcopate and their "progeny", if you will, are currently in positions of power. Their power is immense. But their power is finite.
They have no intention of ever mentioning his name again. In their eyes, he got caught in his aberrant behavior. Unforgiveable to the Club. Not the behavior. Just that he got caught.
The Church will survive all of this. I probably won't live to see it, but the ship will be righted.

If you want to read something sickening, read the NCR Online piece, published in 1999 about Weakland where he apologizes to a bunch of Jews for just about everything.
Agree with you 100% that Hollywood predators get away with this stuff all of the time.

Anonymous said...

I just get an error message when I search on his grave.

Lou Incola said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

As I live in Milwaukee, and have suffered and continue to suffer from Archbishop Weakland and the dismanteling of the Church, allow me to make a few corrections to this story.
First, many people use the figure of $450,000. that Weakland paid to Marcoux. This figure does not take into account the fees of the lawyers. The chief lawyer was Matt Flynn who was the chairman of the State Democratic party. These fees were paid by the people of the Archdiocese.
Second, the priest with whom Marcoux lived was the chaplain at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Neuman Center. He had access to many young men. He shared Weakland's interests. He now live in Florida. Third, the invitations to live at Saint Mary's Abbey and Saint Vincent's Abbey were withdrawn by the respective abbeys. Weakland did not turn them down. Saint Mary's has a very expensive boys high school on the property. Saint Vincent's has a college and a seminary.

Joe Agius said...

So>

Anonymous said...

What Neocons describe as clericalism is another name for Jewish interference and deviant clergy who don’t follow the rules in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Ironically, these clericalists are actually laicists.

Peter said...

Homosexualist James Martin needs to get his 2 cents in on every aberrosexual person in the Catholic Church. Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

Respectfully,Catholics who support Indult groups should re-read the section which says,
"Bp.Montini invited Fr.Weakland to the infamous 1968 Concilium." This Concilium approved the "New Rite of Holy Orders." Men like Fr.Weakland helped replace the canonized Rite of Episcopal Consecration.
Rejecting the 'New Mass" goes hand in hand with rejecting their subsequent "alterations" i.e. mutilations done to the 7 Sacraments.
Sincerely,
Andrew

Maurice Kelly said...

Big disappointment for you Andrea. What do you intend to do about it and why should you care anyway?
Sede vacantists are out of it, old chap.

Barnum said...

Gay priests and bishops who scandalized the Church should not be buried in Catholic cemeteries.

DF said...

"Gay priests and bishops who scandalized the Church should not be buried in Catholic cemeteries."

Why restrict yourself to such a motley bunch of hopeless clerical jokes when a more expansive cynicism might extend to include arrogant twits like you, Circus man.
Get off the jungle juice and get help.

JBQ said...

Mother Angelica of EWTN put this debate in the proper perspective. Her denunciation of liberal Catholics in 1993 was "one of the most disgraceful, un-Christian, offensive, and divisive tirades I've ever heard" said Weakland. The good nun responded with "he can go put his head back in the toilet, as far as I am concerned". (source Life Site News 8.26.22)