Former Catholic archbishop of Milwaukee comes out

[WillParkinson]

Former Catholic archbishop of Milwaukee comes out
By The Associated Press
05.12.2009 8:39am EDT

(New York City) A Roman Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex and financial scandal involving a man describes his struggles with being gay in an upcoming memoir about his decades serving the church.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, said in an interview Monday that he wrote about his sexual orientation because he wanted to be candid about “how this came to life in my own self, how I suppressed it, how it resurrected again.”

Called “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop,” the book is set to be released in June.

“I was very careful and concerned that the book not become a Jerry Springer, to satisfy people’s prurient curiosity or anything of this sort,” Weakland told The Associated Press. “At the same time, I tried to be as honest as I can.”

http://www.365gay.com/news/former-catholic-archbishop-of-milwaukee-comes-out/

[hedgehog]

1. I wonder if the bishop thought that everyone else had the same inclinations and desires

that he did, but that everyone else successfully ignored them while he alone gave in to "temptation". Other men and women of his generation married, only to come out after raising a family.

It explains (but does not excuse) the relatively lenient attitude toward pedophiles within the hierarchy. These guys were so self deluded they couldn't tell normal from harmful behavior. Many still confuse being gay with being a pedophile. Toss in the relative sexual immaturity many of these men have, and you have a real mess. If your mindset is adolescent, it doesn't strike you as strange to be attracted to adolescents.

It also points out why it is so important to have open attitudes toward sexuality in primary grades. Kids need books like Heather has 2 Mommies and Prince and Prince. Most in the GLBT community are born to straights, so they need to have a model to learn why they have different feelings and that those different feelings are OK.

[imdjh]

8. If you tell the truth, you get accused of defending these guys or worse

The truth is that charges against most of these men have not be that they had sex with "little boys" even if those were the words used. Most of them had sex with physically mature minors, aka statutory rape which they shouldn't have been doing either but which is not pedophilia.

The truth is, that when stories come out about a 15 year old male having sex with a 25 year old school female school teacher there are plenty of heterosexual men who say or think, "Wow, where was she when I was 15?" especially if she's a hottie. It's only when the teacher or authority figure is a male that you have near universal outrage, both from those who actually are outraged and those who think they ought to be at least publicly outraged.

Gay men, unlike straight men, won't line up to say, "Oh big deal, when I was 15 I would have had sex with Father Antonio (or John Davidson) in a heartbeat." because they are afraid of confirming the stereotype.

[Ilsa]

2. This story made the local national news section. I started a discussion thread on it.

I wonder where it will go now.

[Kcoll]

3. Catholic Church position on same-sex marriage

The Church's opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage really makes no sense to me. The Church's definition of marriage (as with other religions) has never been the same as the state's definition. There are, and have always been, a great many couples in this country that the state counts as married that the Church does not. Catholics and their church have never objected to this state of affairs before. Why must they object now? Same-sex couples would just be additional couples that the state counts as married that the Church does not.

[hedgehog]

4. I'm a Catholic, and I think that most things coming out of the

mouths of the bishops are desperate attempts to maintain the status quo. We do need priests, and some priests realize this and are very happy in their role. These men are unafraid and even eager for change. Unfortunately, too many are old men (even if only 50ish) who can see no other role for themselves than some fantasy of what it was like before Vatican II.

[kaiwai]

5. What I am surprised about

Warning, I'm a former Catholic :P

What I am surprised about is why they don't allowed married priests - it would be the easiest first reform considering that the Catholic church has a historical precedence.

Regarding gays within the church; there is a massage gap between what the pope says and what the priests say; most priests I know tend to say, "it is a matter between you and god".

[hedgehog]

6. Figure that most of these guys joined the priesthood at a time

when the teaching was you must suffer to serve God, that sex is bad, that you must repress your sexuality, that celibates are holier than everyone else. Now, at the end of their lives, people are saying that if you are serving a loving God, you will not be suffering, that the married state is also good, etc. God ans the rest of us are asking these men to abandon the beliefs of a life time, and simultaneously realize that they made a mess of their own lives for the wrong reasons. Many of them should never have been priests, even married priests. Many of them could have and should have been married.

Pride is the deadliest sin. It keeps people from admitting a mistake.

[imdjh]

7. How does RCC retirement work?

The Bishop Of St Petersburg, Bishop Lynch, has had his own ex scandal involving a supposedly heterosexual male employee who inexplicably accepted the role of boyfriend as long as it meant trips and gifts and then got upset when it came to sex. Mind you, I wouldn't want to have sex with Bishop Lynch either, but I wouldn't accept his gifts.

Anyway, all of that was to establish that Bishop Lynch really shouldn't be supporting Amendment 2, opposing gay rights, and sucking up to the KOC- but he does. He's amazingly hypocritical and doesn't even comment when challenged.

This makes me wonder about the pay and retirement system. Bishop Lynch lives in a really nice, large, waterfront pool home in a nice neighborhood, but he doesn't own it. What would happen to him if he got fired? Let's assume that his degree is in theology and has the marketability of PhD in basket weaving. Let's say that because he's been such an unmitigated jackass that the MCC won't have him, and neither will the Episcopalians. Where does he go?