Did Archishop Really 'Confess' to Gay Affairs? Or Just Describe Them?

The Washington Post displayed bad headline-writing technique on Saturday in religion coverage. The paper picked up a Religion News dispatch by Daniel Burke on retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland and his admission of homosexuality. The headline was "A Church Leader’s Unusual Confession." Weakland admitted he had violated his vow of celibacy and had homosexual relationships, but he did not "confess," since he wasn’t suggesting it was a grave sin and that he wanted to reject it.

Instead, Burke quotes from Weakland’s new book, about when his improper relationship with Paul Marcoux became public:

"It may seem strange, but I felt a new freedom, a sense of being liberated for the first time," Weakland writes. "It had become public knowledge that my orientation was homosexual. There was nothing more to hide; no one could do anything more to me. I was free."

That’s hardly in line with Catholic teaching on homosexuality, which is defined as a mortal sin that a man or woman should confess and repent and pledge to do no more. The orientation, if not acted upon, is not the problem. Engaging in intercourse, as the Archbishop did, is the grave sin.

The main scolds in Burke's story are lobbyists against the horror of priest sex abuse. They're still unhappy with the archbishop's spotty record on sexually abusive priests. There's no one who really brings a classic conservative case against how morally compromised Weakland became.