Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22997 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 429 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780802863829
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
When Weakland resigned as Milwaukee archbishop in 2002 after revelations of a past homosexual relationship and a confidential payout, it was seen as another stunning episode in the unfolding clergy abuse scandal. It was especially painful to liberal Catholics who viewed Weakland as their champion. Weakland was publicly penitent, but other events that year—chief among them the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston—made Weakland's drama a footnote. With this frank and well-told memoir, that's no longer the case. A Benedictine monk, Weakland is up front about his homosexuality in a church that preferred to ignore gays, and about his failures in overseeing pedophile priests. But this is really the poignant journey of a soul, not a mea culpa about sex, with chapters on his hardscrabble boyhood and fascinating, and sometimes sobering, insights into the life of a bishop and the tensions between the American Catholic Church and the Vatican. At points the narrative has more than enough detail on the life of a globe-trotting abbot. But overall this is an invaluable historical record and a moving personal confession. (June)
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Customer Reviews

A Honest Story
Archbishop Weakland is an extraordinary man who has lived a rich and interesting life. In the beginning of the book he states that he hopes that the good of his life can be judged along side his sin and failings, and in that I think he hits the right notes. I found the book exceedingly interesting as it followed the life of a man who was intimately involved in so much that has happened in the Church for the past 50 years. At times, I felt like a fly on the wall of events taking place in Rome, Washington, DC, Milwaukee, and around the world. Archbishop Weakland's outlines well how he came to believe what he believes, including his many "liberal" views. His explanation of how the Church changed during the papacy of John Paul II will anger some, but I found it provided insight for ways that I have experienced the Church changing over the years. I hope that the people who are choosing to comment on this book will read it cover to cover before continuing to comment on it. It probably won't make sense to those who have already decided that liberal is equal to bad, but for those who are interested in hearing the story of a Catholic struggling to serve his Church through a very interesting period of Church history, this book is for you.

Fear Not
This book is a must-read for any student of religion and especially for someone who wants to look inside the workings of the institutional Catholic church in the United States. Archbishop Weekland writes a stunningly frank and humble appraisal of his life and work. Here is an extraordinarily gifted man who is open-minded and open-hearted who has struggled with all the temptations and pressures in a dysfunctional instution while trying to remain loyal to his cosncience, his God, and his vocation.

Archbishop Weekland's experience is a microcosm of the struggle waged by those who would reform the Chruch in the spirit and intent of Vatican II agaist the forces of fear and reaction and self-interest and self-aggandizement that have paralyzed the church under John Paul II. Thank you Archbishop Weekland for having the courage and indeed the gentleness not often deserved in portraying the warts of a stubborn, hard-fisted, manipulative and monarchical pontiff whose poitifcate was a disaster for the development of theology, interfaith relations, and the battle for human freedom throughtout the world. Thank you for shining a light of factual exposure on such Vatican functionaries as Cardinals Anthony Bevilacqua and Justin Rigali, two red-robed rogues always upholding the company line and oblivious of the social teachings of the church which are as constitutive of church as the sacramental system.

Intelligent Catholics need to read this book to understand the forces that have stymied renewal since Vatican II. Thank you Rembert for not succombing to the active stiflying of the Spirit under the aegis of the former Pope and his henchmen. Indeed the Gamaliel test will apply; ecclesial fascism and fear will not prevail. May we find more Remberts in our leadership.

Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop
I believe this book is of great interest to those interested in the Catholic Church, in particular those that identify more with the movement of Vatican II and feel that the church has moved away in spirit from that time. As a "progressive" churchman, his candid views on the hierarchy of the church, always respectful but suggesting a better way, give an insider's look to the Vatican and church structure. I'm not sure another book like this exists or will for time to come. In short, a treasure for those "progressive" Catholics.