By George Mallet
WTMJ
May 15, 2009
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/45053252.html
[with video]
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It was Rembert Weakland who was in charge of the Milwaukee Archdiocese during a time when pedophile priests were shuttled from parish to parish. Of that time Weakland admits only to naivete, not conspiracy. The passages of Weakland’s new book appear to be an attempt at rewriting history.
"In handling these cases, I had accepted naively the common view that it was not necessary to worry about the effects on the youngsters: either they would not remember or would 'grow out of it.," Weakland writes.
Weakland goes on to explain the moving of priests this way:
"The parents usually said they would take care of the child if I got the priest out of the area."
Weakland writes specifically of putting a pedophile priest, William Effinger, in Sheboygan. He's still surprised parishioners were so angry.
"I never did understand why the priest involved was not the primary object of this anger, but the feeling was that the church had deceived them."
He also writes about his affair with Marquette graduate student Paul Marcoux, the man who went public about his affair with the then Archbishop.
"When in the summer of 1979 he asked me to share an evening meal, I accepted,” Weakland writes. “That evening ended in sexual touches that he later would call 'date rape. Our sporadic relationship continued, for some months, while I kept closing my eyes to its conflict with my vow of celibacy, the sinfulness of it all..."
TODAY’S TMJ4 made repeated attempts to get comment on this report from Weakland. We were not able to get any comment.
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