Weakland, Easter, TMJ4 and WTMJ

Contrary to a repeated report on TMJ4, the disgraced former archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, did NOT say Mass at the Cathedral on Easter Sunday.

On Sunday night, we had the Channel 4 10:00 PM news on, without the volume. A family member pointed out that Weakland was shown saying Mass. I said it was Bishop Richard Sklba, not Weakland, that Sklba now had a beard. And we moved on.

Then, Monday afternoon, Mark Belling spent much of the first hour of his radio program ripping on the Milwaukee Archdiocese for allowing the disgraced Weakland to concelebrate Easter Sunday Mass with Bishop Richard Sklba at the Cathedral.

I was stunned. It was Weakland. I assumed by the time I looked at the screen I had missed him. I was going to be sure to tell my family member that Weakland did, in fact, celebrate Mass at the Cathedral on Easter. How could the Archdiocese make such an inappropriate choice of celebrants?

Callers to Belling's show weighed in, condemning the Milwaukee Archdiocese for permitting Weakland to say Mass on Easter at such a prominent place.

The discussion also included concern about Weakland's portrait being displayed along with other Archbishops of Milwaukee, as well as the building bearing Weakland's name, the Archbishop Weakland Center, which houses the archdiocesan cathedral offices in downtown Milwaukee.

There still is a lot of hostility toward Weakland. I completely understand it. What he did was such a betrayal. He left the Milwaukee Archdiocese in shambles. Catholics in southeastern Wisconsin are still struggling with the fall-out from Weakland's failings today.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Weakland's successor, helped us to heal and move forward. What a blessing!

Belling stayed on the topic until Milwaukee Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski called in to say Weakland did NOT celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at the Cathedral.

Belling had to apologize for not checking the facts of TMJ4's report.

Although the discussion was about a non-story, it did reveal how some Catholics in the area react to Weakland. It also revealed how poorly the news media do their jobs.

TMJ4 was wrong in its reporting. Richard Sklba was incorrectly identified as Weakland. Apparently, they think any old priest at the Cathedral with a white beard must be Weakland.

The story ran on TV on Sunday and on TMJ4's Monday morning news. It was posted online on the 620 WTMJ website at 7:30 AM. It was also on TMJ4's website.





The story:

Former Archbishop Weakland says Easter Mass in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE - A retired Milwaukee Archbishop came back to the cathedral he called home for many years to say Easter Mass.

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland presided over one of the Sunday Masses at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Auxillary Bishop Richard Sklba joined him.

Inexcusably, this untrue story and video remained on TMJ4's site for HOURS after Belling's rant began. HOURS!

The video was still online after 10:00 PM on Monday.

This video link may not work much longer, but here it is:



Transcript

MELISSA McCRADY: Christians around the world and in Milwaukee celebrated Easter Sunday. Easter commemorates the Christian belief in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba presided over Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

It seems the TMJ4 news team thinks Sklba is Weakland in this image and the other priest is Sklba. Not good.

I don't blame McCrady for reading what was fed to her on the teleprompter. I assume she wasn't responsible for the reporting.

What's really unbelievable is that TMJ4 and WTMJ were so slow to remove the inaccurate story from their websites.

Terribly embarrassing.

Unfortunately, it's not surprising that the outlets ran the factually false report.

Very shoddy journalism.