The Archdiocese needs to remove Weakland artwork

In the early part of the last decade, then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland oversaw the large-scale, and controversial, remodeling of St. John's Cathedral.  In the narthex of the Cathedral there is a plaque reminding all church-goers the work was done "not without difficulty."

In the November issue of Milwaukee Magazine, H. Russell Zimmermann's article "Our Greatest Churches" criticized the renovations:

In 2002, another major project was announced as “a glorious renovation” of the interior. The modernist design was derided as “a theater-in-the-round” and “too Protestant” by detractors. To me, the shockingly mismatched interior is a mistake. The archdiocese's most beloved edifice deserves a meaningful restoration to its original, richly ornamented interior.

Far worse than the alterations of the Cathedral were the accusations and admissions, coming out in early 2009, that Weakland knew about the misconduct of priests and transferred them anyway, shredded reports about sexual abuse, paid $450,000 to settle a claim with a man he'd had a relationship with, and proclaimed in his 2009 memoir that the Catholic Church should "endorse the 'physical, genital expression' of homosexuality."

Weakland's actions cost, and will continue to cost, the Milwaukee diocese millions of dollars.

So when it came to light that Weakland's image has been preserved in a bronze bas relief in the Cathedral, depicting Weakland shepherding children, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called for its removal, and asks why Weakland is speaking at the Cathedral Ministry Conference next week.

In responding to the controversy, Fox6 reported Fr. Carl Last said "Weakland's image represents the head of the local archdiocese at the time" and added, "I don't see a need to modify it. I think I've explained the intent of it and the focus of it. If some individual wants to say he doesn't see it that way it's his problem."

If you want an idea of how controversial Weakland is, he's been turned away from not one, but two, monasteries on the east coast.  This is especially significant since Weakland used to be the abbot of St. Vincent's in Latrobe, Penn.

Given that the diocese faces the real possibility of being driven in to bankruptcy by lawsuits of sex abuse victims, and that Catholics must deal with harsh critics who use the sex abuse scandal as a club with which to bash the faith, it would be, at minimum, a gesture of good will to remove the artwork and discontinue any relationships with Weakland.  Doing so would signal a break with the ideologies and attitudes that allowed such abuse to infiltrate the Catholic Church.