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Church Sex Abuse Scandal Continues: Archbishop Resigns, New Priests Charged
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Archbishop weakland
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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – 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.
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