Former Archbishop Weakland's Deposition

UPDATE, MAY 11, 2009: Weakland is Gay
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From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A lawyer this morning released portions of a video deposition taken in June of retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland in which Weakland acknowledges that he had returned abusive priests to church ministry without alerting parishioners.

The release of the deposition came in response to a contention last month by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that the deaths of key people involved in the church's coverup of sexual abuse allegations had thrown into question the fairness of a pending trial, and that if the archdiocese lost the pending cases, it could face bankruptcy.

Jeffery Anderson, a lawyer representing those suing the church, said the trial would be fair because Weakland's testimony showed that a coverup existed.

Weakland, who has largely been out of the public eye since he retired in 2002 in the midst of another scandal, was questioned under oath for more than a day by Anderson. Portions of that deposition were released - a common practice in court cases - in which Weakland acknowledged that he never reported any suspected abuse while he headed the local church. He also testified that he never directly asked accused priests if allegations were true and that he never discussed what he knew about instances of sexual abuse with his successor, Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

The former archbishop acknowledged in the deposition that he returned abusers to active ministry without informing parishioners because "no parish would have accepted a priest unless you could say that he has gone through the kind of psychological examination and that he's not a risk to the parish."

...Anderson said he was releasing the video deposition that was taken as a part of the court case to rebut arguments that the deaths of witnesses would affect the outcome of the case.

Again, the can of worms is opened.

Clearly, this video is edited. In effect, it's the prosecution's highlight reel. That, however, doesn't alter the substance of the revelations.

It is so terribly painful to watch.

The way the archdiocese handled abusive priests is inexcusable.

It's mind-boggling to me that when an instance of abuse came to light it wasn't reported to police immediately.

This is black and white. A crime is a crime.

I don't know how Weakland and others in the archdiocese could have put children at risk. I don't get how they, in good conscience, could have enabled the abusers.

Their silence was absolutely inexcusable.

There would have been no enormous scandal, the archdiocese wouldn't be teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, if one person had done the right thing, if one person had talked, if one person had called the police.

I don't know why the parents of victims didn't notify police immediately.

The criminals should have been arrested and held accountable for their crimes when they were discovered by Church authorities. But the criminals weren't held accountable. They were allowed to remain free and, in some cases, commit more crimes.

How do I forgive that?