American ecclesiastic, ordained Bishop and installed as the ninth Archbishop of Milwaukee on 11/08/1977.
Raised in a strong Catholic family, he has one brother and four sisters. He went to Catholic schools and graduated in 1944, speaking six languages. He took theology at the Benedictine College in Rome, and studied Gregorian chants and piano in Italy and France. Back in the U.S., he went to Juilliard School of Music in New York 1952-1954.
Weakland was ordained in the Roman Catholic priesthood on 6/24/1951, while in Italy. He offered his first Mass on 8/05/1951. He travels extensively to conferences where he offers a strong, rational voice, to Europe and to Russia.
In 1983-1984, he conducted a live TV series, “Open The Door.” Aware of the challenges facing young Catholics today, he initiated “Project Rachel,” a pastoral response to women who have gone through abortions, and in March-April 1990, he held six listening sessions for women on the question of abortion. He also conducts sessions for persons involved in sexual abuse. He established a parish for Native American Indians. His work has brought him many awards and honors.
On 11/26/1996, Weakland had surgery for prostate cancer, with a series of 35 radiation treatments from March 19 to May 6, 1997. A year later he had a fourth tête-à-tête with Pope John Paul, one of the U.S. episcopate’s last unregenerate liberals. He has often pressed the church to consider liturgical changes and the ordination of women and married men.
On 5/23/2002, Paul Marcoux gave a TV interview saying that the archbishop had sexually assaulted him when he was a 33-year-old grad student, 20 years ago, then paid him $450,000 in a confidential settlement in 1998. Weakland denied the charge, an explosive addition to charges of sexual improprieties that have blasted the church since January 2002. An anguished personal letter the archbishop wrote to Marcoux on 8/25/1980, made public by a longtime critic of the archbishop, seems to indicate that the two men had been involved in a long-running emotional relationship that ended when the archbishop resolved to return to his commitment to celibacy. In accordance with church policy, Weakland submitted his resignation as archbishop on his 75th birthday, April 2, and in May he requested the Vatican to accelerate its acceptance.