Archbishop Weakland and his retirement community

Michael Home takes the 'House Confidential' at Urban Milwaukee to Rembert Weakland’s Blandly Secular Apartment "near Wilson Park in southwest [sic] Milwaukee". That's actually on the South (or Sout') Side, less than a mile from where I grew up.

Overall, it's a pretty good summary of the most recent problems of our Archbishop Emeritus, and of his life story. His apartment building is named The Chopin. For Frederic, not Kate.

"The 'communities' built by Tarantino include various amenities like lounges, parlors, hair salons, and, in the case of the Chopin, the Harold A. Breier Dining Room (named after the former Milwaukee police chief) and a chapel where 'Fr.' Weakland says mass daily (twice or three times on Saturday.)"
Seems both homey and a bit parishey.

House mentions that "Weakland also contributes to the community newsletter occasionally." Too bad it's not online.

P.S. Chief Breier's tenure overlapped with Archbishop Weakland's. Seeing a touch of irony in Weakland dining in the Breier Dining Room might require some background. For a flavor of the Chief, here's The Milwaukee Journal's May 1, 1984 report of his retirement announcement, on page 1 and continued on page 6.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am no fan of Weakland but this post gives the impression he is living in a luxury apartment. In reality, The Chopin is a senior citizen assisted living complex...all of which have these amenities because many residents are too feeble to leave the complex.

Anonymous said...

The good people of Milwaukee are paying for this I am sure.

I wish they would not use the $450,000. figure when they talk about the money Weakland took from the Archdiocese. It was more than that. Are we to believe that the attorney, Matt Flynn and company (who was the State Demoncratic party chairman and John Kerry's leader in Wisconsin) were working for nothing? How much did they get?

Also, where did the money go when Weakland sold off all the land the had been bought in the past (in the ten counties) for new parishes, schools, cemeteries?

Terrence Berres said...

Anonymous July 14, 2014 at 7:23 AM: In these parts, a retirement home in the Wilson Park neighborhood and converted from the old DePaul Rehabilitation Hospital would not be assumed to be high-end. If Archbishop Weakland's spending any time in a hot tub now, it's therapeutic, I'm sure.

Anonymous July 14, 2014 at 9:08 AM: Whatever the good people of Milwaukee assume, I assume Archbishop Weakland is paying for this on the same basis as any other resident. In his case, I assume that includes paying from whatever retirement benefits he receives.

Since no one ever indicated Mr. Flynn or his firm were working pro bono, it seems safe to assume our Archdiocese paid them a lot to handle this case. His political affiliations didn't seem to affect the quality of his work. I haven't heard anyone fault the settlement from a legal perspective; the scandal arose from the client's decisions.

As I recall, the money from those sales went into what our Archdiocese called its Building Fund. This and other sexual abuse settlements were paid from that fund.