don't be a victim

By ( articles ) | May 12, 2009

 Well waddaya know. Archbishop Rembert Weakland tells the world he is homosexual. Stop the presses!

In his forthcoming book the archbishop discusses his struggle with same-sex attraction, and the scandal that drove him out of office.

"I refused to let myself become a victim and refused to let myself become angry," he said.

He refused to be a victim. Such heroism! 

There were victims; no doubt about that:

• There were the young people molested by priests (including at least one who said he was abused by the archbishop himself). They were victims.
• There were the trusting parishioners who had predator-priests assigned to their communities by an archbishop who knew what those priests had already done. They were victims.
• There were the donors who freely gave funds to support the Church, and only later learned that $450,000 of their money had been used by the archbishop as hush money. They were victims.

But Archbishop Weakland? No, he wasn't a victim. There were plenty of Catholics in Milwaukee with just cause for anger, and the archbishop wasn't one of them, either. 

The moral of the story: If you don't want to be the victim of a bank robber, rob the bank yourself.