Weakland Finally Falls

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The notorious neo-modernist fraud, "Catholic" Archbishop Rembert Weakland has finally been unmasked. As I write this column, the media - no doubt with great reluctance - are reporting that in 1998 Weakland "agreed to pay $450,000 to a man who accused him of sexual assault, according to documents cited Thursday by ABC News (on the Good Morning America show)." (AP report May 23, 2002)

        The victim of the assault, Paul J. Marcoux, 53, revealed on Good Morning America that "I was involved in a cover-up. I accepted money to be silent about it, not to speak out against what was going on." Marcoux testified that he was "sexually assaulted 20 years ago, when he was a student at Marquette University and had gone to the archbishop seeking advice about entering the priesthood." That was his first mistake. According to Marcoux, when he went to see Weakland, the "archbishop" took the occasion to commit a sexual assault upon him. I will spare the reader the indecent details of exactly what Weakland did, which are already being reported by the major media outlets.

        After the assault on Marcoux, Weakland paid him $14,000 in 1980, and sent him a lengthy handwritten letter in which he made the damning admission that "I felt like the world's worst hypocrite. So gradually I came back to the importance of celibacy in my life. ..." The importance of celibacy - in his life! That is how Weakland views his vow of celibacy before God: something whose "importance" he has lately discovered.

        AP further reports that when, in 1997, Marcoux sought more than the $14,000 Weakland had paid him, the archbishop ponied up another $450,000 "to settle the case on condition of secrecy." Where all that money came from is an interesting question. Yes, of course one might argue that Marcoux is exploiting the situation to make himself rich and famous. But that is beside the point. The point is that a Catholic archbishop has placed himself in this situation to begin with.

        No doubt Weakland will be forced to resign, having already tendered his resignation upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. The Vatican will finally have to accept that resignation - which it had not done until now - thus ridding the Church of this termite once and for all. But that does not end the crisis of the homosexual infiltration of the hierarchy. Weakland is one of at least five North American bishops who have been forced to resign over the past two years because of a homosexual scandal. The question presents itself: how many homosexual bishops - and cardinals - are there? Another question: What is the relation between the homosexual infiltration of the Church and the deconstruction of the sacred liturgy, and indeed most of the traditional Roman Catholic religion, over the past forty years of postconciliar renewal?

        The homosexual bishops and priests continue to topple like dominos, while the Vatican apparatus busies itself with repeated condemnations of one lone priest who has kept his vows: Father Nicholas Gruner. It says a great deal about our situation that the only priest being publicly condemned by the Vatican is the one whose apostolate has been singularly successful in shining a light on this whole sordid mess - the light that Heaven provided to the whole Church at Fatima.