Rembert G. Weakland

Insider accounts from a lonely man

A Benedictine monk, a musician and a scholar, former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland does more than merely trace his life in the church in his just released autobiography: A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop (Eerdmans, $35). He provides excellent -- if sometimes chilling insights -- into U.S. episcopal-Vatican relations, including his own frosty relationship with John Paul II and some Vatican officials. At home, many in the Milwaukee may find he too glibly glosses over his appropriating $450,000 in archdiocesan funds to pay off his sexual accuser, Paul Marcoux. In 2002, Weakland’s resignation as Milwaukee archbishop was accepted immediately following public disclosure -- on ABC’s “Good Morning America” -- of that relationship.