Consider: in 1977 Milwaukee was blessed with the presence of one Rembert George Weakland, a strange, petulant and obnoxious Modernist who would probably still be Archbishop had his homosexual dalliances not become public. Under his fiefdom misery upon misery was visited upon the hapless Catholics of the diocese, the local seminary was turned into a porn film grind house, the ugly and stupid Novus Ordo Masses became uglier and stupider, homosexual predation of adolescent boys became more prevalent, every idiotic liturgical abuse permitted by a weakened, ungoverning papacy found a place in the City's Catholic churches and schools, the list goes on. Weakland never missed an opportunity to publicly utter his personal dissent (read: schism) from Church teaching knowing full well he would be protected in Rome by his mincing friends there. The traditional Mass that was said in Milwaukee regularly in at least two diocesan churches quietly disappeared and went "underground", so to speak, and where heroic priests, knowing their rights, continued to serve those who wished to have the ancient rite even if that meant having Holy Mass in rented halls or private homes. (Weakland would eventually, and reluctantly, "allow" a traditional Mass at a chapel once the 1984 indult was granted by the reigning Pope)
In short, Rembert Weakland took an already weakened diocese and all but demolished it.
After this Archbishop was forced to resign the Vatican named Timothy Dolan as the new Ordinary of the diocese. At his installation, Dolan insisited on having the disgraced former Archbishop take part in the ceremony, a move which began his sorry and extremely uninspiring reign on a note of outrage and further scandal. Archnbishop Dolan laughed a lot and spoke a lot and told jokes a lot and wore "cheese heads" a lot but did nothing whatsoever to repair the damage done by Hurricane Weakland. His stint in Milwaukee was for all intents and purposes an utter failure.
He did have one success, however; he personally scuttled a long and prudently managed attempt to install the Fraternity of St Peter as the guardians of the so-called "Tridentine Community" in the Milwaukee diocese preferring instead to award the plum to a traditional religious order far less likely to say or do anything "offensive" to the modernist powers-that-be.
That brings us to the current occupant of the Archdiocesan See of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki. At his installation ceremony the new tradition of scandalizing Catholics continued with the presence there once again of Rembert Weakland. I do not wish to be too hard on Archbisop Listecki this early on in the game but, thus far, we are seeing a woefully mediocre performance. He seems particularly unlettered in the Faith, and is now involving the Archdiocese in a particularly bad idea, bringing the Obamunist Common Core(!) to diocesan schools. His communication style lends itself very quickly to the banal and he speaks like an executive of the Coca-Cola Company trying to defend the "New Coke"; all the corporate cliches and buzz words are ever-present in his writings and his press conferences. Pretty sorry stuff.
His non-response to the terrible situation at Marquette University also speaks volumes.
To be fair he does on occasion say or do a few minimally edifying things, and is a very slight improvement on his predecessors; he is nevertheless unsuited at this point to lead a troubled diocese. One hopes the prayers being offered for him will do some good.
Rome has graced the once-charming city of Milwaukee with such as these. I don't know why. I can only assume that there is some lingering hatred for the town harbored in the hearts of those in the Vatican in charge of assigning Bishops. Milwaukee's northern neighbor Madison gets a good man like Morlino. Their neighbors slightly to the South get a fine man like Jenky. One lucky diocese gets a Paprocki.
But Milwaukee gets these men. Why?
6 comments:
I would really like to know more about the failed attempt to get the Fraternity in Milwaukee. Can you elaborate?
D:
That story is better told by the many who lived it but my understanding of it is that the priest who was in charge of saying the ancient rite Mass
"approved" by the diocese was working with both Rome and the Fraternity to have them come to Milwaukee to take over his job, as he was of retirement age. This was at the time of Summorum Pontificum.
Everything was apparently set, both this priest (who is highly respected in Rome) and Rome were on the same page and all was ready to go when suddenly Archbishop Dolan brought in another traditional order and left both the Fraternity of St Peter and the chaplain of the Tridentine Community high and dry.
No one knows for certain why Dolan stepped in and shoehorned this other order in at the last moment but the speculation is that this other order is far more obsequious towards certain personages in Rome and less likely to say anything too straightforward from the pulpit. Subsequent events have seemed to substantiate this speculation.
I make no claim for the absolute veracity of this explanation and am relying on the reports of some of those involved. But there seems to be a fairly large kernel of truth in these reports.
It is not my intention to denigrate the Order which is now saying the "approved" old Mass in Milwaukee but it is also true that there are those who are far from happy about their management style among other issues. Their cavalier destruction of a forty year old choir (by replacing a skilled and artistic choir director with another of far less ability), that had sung the ancient Mass for five decades, was particularly egregious. It was one of their first acts as administrators of the parish Dolan assigned them.
Perhaps someone closer to the situation who might read this can offer even more details. The Fraternity of Saint Peter probably would have been a better fit for Milwaukee but all that is at this point academic.
Between Weaklink and Mahony those 2 are responsible for the destruction of the Catholic Faith in the US
Was "Peter" in lethargy?
No 'anathema'? No 'excommunication'......Satan reigns!!!
....MISERERE!....
I did not think that the FSSP was any more or less muzzled than any other priestly group who accepted compromises in order to be shackled to an apostate Rome. So who is this other group of priests who were brought in?
I believe he is making a reference to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest? Could it possibly be because the ICRSS already is in the La Crosse diocese as well as Green Bay? My understanding is that the ICRSS and FSSP do not "compete" but seek to go were no Latin Mass is offered.
Post a Comment