gelatik
24.05.02, 23:38
Archbishop Resigns, New Priests Charged
MILWAUKEE– As allegations of sexual abuse arose against two new priests, the 75
year old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee said Thursday he had asked Rome
to move swiftly to replace him. He wanted to save the church any further
embarrassment following allegations he sexually harassed an aspiring priest
some 20 years ago.
"I have never abused anyone," Archbishop Rembert Weakland said in a statement,
but "given the climate in today's world where the Church must regain its
credibility, this situation would be an added and continuing distraction from
that goal."
"I do not want to be an obstacle to that search on the part of the Church,
which I will continue to love with all my heart," he wrote.
Weakland's remarks came just hours after a U.S. television network aired an
interview with his accuser - Paul Marcoux, a 53-year-old former theology
student.
The Roman Catholic church in the United States has been rocked by reports that
it harbored - in some cases knowingly - sexual predators within its ranks.
Particularly galling to some is the fact that some high-ranking clerics knew of
pedophiles in holy orders but allowed them to continue in active ministry
anyway.
In an interview with ABC's “Good Morning America” show, Marcoux claimed
Weakland assaulted him when he went to him as a student in his thirties seeking
advice about his hopes of entering the priesthood.
Marcoux relayed to the network specific actions he said the priest tried to
force him to engage in.
Over the next year Weakland continued to pressure Marcoux to have a sexual
relationship with him, according to Marcoux who acknowledged going to Weakland
twice in the following years to extract hush money from him.
Weakland admitted to the financial settlement and apparently gave one initial
payment of at least $14,000 and a further $450,000 in 1997 after Marcoux
threatened him with a lawsuit.
Weakland, who took holy orders 51 years ago, Thursday attempted to reassure his
congregation that that payoff was not subsidized by the church.
"I want to let the people of the archdiocese know that through my 25 years as
bishop, I have handed over to the archdiocese money obtained by my lectures and
writings, together with other honoraria.
"Cumulatively, those monies far exceed any settlement amount," he wrote.
In a separate development, church officials in Lexington, Kentucky, said they
had removed Bishop Kendrick Williams from pastoral duties Wednesday after he
was accused of molesting an altar boy 21 years ago.
The bishop, who denied the accusations, was named in a civil suit filed by the
former altar boy James Bennett Tuesday, diocesan spokesman Tom Shaughnessy
said.
"I do not remember the young man, and I have never been brutal to anyone in my
entire life," the bishop wrote in a statement, adding that the allegations
were "false."
Williams will remain off active duties while the matter is investigated by
church lawyers, Shaughnessy said.
Meanwhile, in New York, a priest from India was charged Thursday in a local
court with sexually abusing a 12 year-old girl in 1999 while serving at the St.
Mary's Star of the Sea church in the city's Brooklyn borough.
Francis X. Nelson, 38, pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual abuse and one
count of endangering the welfare of a child following allegations he molested
the young girl at her home after claiming he wished to visit her sick
grandmother.
The priest was not alleged to have engaged in specific sexual activity but was
accused of fondling the young girl.
Judge Jon Firetog released Nelson, a member of the Diocese of Kottar, India, on
his own recognizance, issuing a six-month "order of protection," forbidding
Nelson from having any contact with the young girl.
"If you do violate the order of protection, you could end up going to jail,"
Firetog said.
The charges against Nelson are misdemeanors and would carry a penalty of one
year in prison if he is convicted, a statement from the district attorney's
office said.
Nelson surrendered early Thursday to detectives at the rectory of St. Charles
Borromeo Roman Catholic Church, where he is currently serving as a priest, the
statement said.
