Catholic World News News Feature
Milwaukee Archbishop Said to Pay Large Settlement on Assault Claim May 23, 2002
MILWAUKEE, May 23, 02 (CWNews.com) -- Milwaukee's Archbishop Rembert Weakland paid a large financial settlement to a man who accused him of sexual assault, according to a report aired on a national television broadcast Thursday.
The ABC News program "Good Morning America" reported that Archbishop Weakland paid $450,000 to Paul Marcoux, who said that he had been assaulted 20 years ago.
Marcoux produced what he identified as a long letter, hand-written by the Milwaukee archbishop in 1980, agreeing to pay $14,000 to settle the charges. (The archbishop's letter strongly suggests a homosexual relationship.) When Marcoux renewed his charges in 1997, the archdiocese paid $450,000, the ABC program continued. Marcoux said that as a part of that settlement, "I have been part of a cover-up."
Archbishop Weakland declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations, pointing out that he had signed a confidentiality agreement.. However, he insisted: "I have never abused anyone."
The archbishop claimed that he had made contributions of his own funds to the archdiocese over the years, and those sums "far exceed any settlement agreement."
Archbishop Weakland, who recently submitted his resignation as required upon reaching his 75th birthday, said that he had asked the Vatican to hasten the acceptance of that resignation.
