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	Victims Rebuke Weakland By Annysa Johnson Journal Sentinel May 20, 2009 http://www.jsonline.com/news/45549432.html Victims of clergy sex abuse in Wisconsin used the report of an Irish investigation Wednesday to assail retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland's upcoming memoir again, saying Irish authorities rejected the notion echoed by Weakland that church authorities early on did not see sexual contact with minors as a crime. The commission investigating the physical and sexual abuse of thousands of Irish children in Catholic-run institutions dismissed as implausible a central defense of the religious orders - that in earlier years, people saw sexual abuse of a child as a sin rather than a criminal offense. Weakland reiterates that idea in his memoir "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church," due out in June, saying, "We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil but had no understanding of its criminal nature." Peter Isely, regional director for the victim advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: "It just shows how in lockstep Weakland is with all other church leaders who covered this up. They're all mouthing the same lines." Isely praised the commission's findings, saying similarly unbiased reviews have yielded the same findings. "They've all come to the same conclusion, that it's simply not credible, this what I now call the 'Weakland defense.'?" Repeated attempts to reach Weakland for comment have been unsuccessful.
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