Gay Catholic Archbishop Writes Memoir

Figure in sex scandal admits orientation, denies assault

By Gabriel Winant, Newser Staff

Posted May 12, 2009 11:58 AM CDT

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Gay Catholic Archbishop Writes Memoir — This Aug, 28, 2002 file photo shows retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wis. (AP Photo/Dale Guldan, Pool, File)

A Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex scandal with a man has written a book addressing his sexual orientation, reports the AP. Rembert Weakland was head of the Milwaukee archdiocese and a hero to liberal Catholics for his activism, until he resigned at the peak of the clergy’s molestation crisis, after a former theology student revealed that he was paid $450,000 to settle a decades-old sexual assault claim against Weakland.

Weakland denies the assault accusation, but admits concealing the settlement payment. Of his new book, he says, “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.” Called a Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church, it comes out in June.
(More Roman Catholic bishops stories.)

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