Pope Accepts Bishop Resignation

By MELISSA McCORD

May 24, 2002 MILWAUKEE (AP) - Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation on Friday of Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, the highest-ranking U.S. churchman to acknowledge a settlement of a sexual misconduct allegation against him.

The decision was announced in the daily news bulletin of the Holy See's press office, citing Weakland's age as an explanation. The archbishop, a leading liberal in the church, acknowledged Thursday that he paid a settlement to a man who accused him of sexual assault more than 22 years ago. He denied ever molesting anyone, but asked the Vatican to expedite the resignation he submitted earlier this year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Milwaukee's top prosecutor, E. Michael McCann, said he had known for years that Weakland had a relationship with a man, but there was no suggestion of any crime. ``He advised me that he had a relationship that had compromised him in some fashion,'' McCann told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Friday's editions. ``He was troubled by it, but there was nothing criminal in it.''

Weakland's resignation took effect immediately, archdiocese Chancellor Barbara Anne Cusack told The Associated Press Friday. Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was ``deeply saddened'' by the news. ``It comes at a time when the church in our country is suffering greatly from what seems to be an unending series of revelations and accusations,'' Gregory said in a statement. ``On behalf of all of the bishops of the United States, I extend my deepest sympathy to the people of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.''

Roman Catholics across Wisconsin struggled to absorb the news after Weakland's accuser, former theology student Paul Marcoux, went public Thursday with word of the $450,000 settlement. ``I want to cry and crawl under my bed,'' said Marquette Law School Dean Howard Eisenberg, who heads a commission Weakland created to review sex abuse allegations against priests. ``You don't know where the next shoe is.''

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