Capitol Hill Blue Forums We shall overcome

In spring 2002, as the scandal over sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests was escalating, the long career of Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee, one of the church’s most venerable voices for change, went up in flames one May morning.

On the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the archbishop watched a man he had fallen in love with 23 years earlier say in an interview that the Milwaukee archdiocese had paid him $450,000 years before to keep quiet about his affair with the archbishop — an affair the man was now calling date rape.

The next day, the Vatican accepted Archbishop Weakland’s retirement.

Archbishop Weakland, who had been the intellectual touchstone for church reformers, has said little publicly since then. But now, in an interview and in a memoir scheduled for release next month, he is speaking out about how internal church politics affected his response to the fallout from his affair; how bishops and the Vatican cared more about the rights of abusive priests than about their victims; and why Catholic teaching on homosexuality is wrong.

That less-than-ringing reaffirmation of Obama's support for gays in the military sows doubt about whether the president will vigorously lobby Congress for two other items on his campaign's gay-rights agenda: enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act protecting gays and lesbians against workplace discrimination, and a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman." Political reality and the press of other business may justify the postponement of some of Obama's campaign promises, but these aren't among them.

The Pentagon wants more time before the ban on gays serving openly in the military is reversed.

A senior military official said that while President Barack Obama has been clear that he wants to repeal the Clinton-era policy of "don't ask, don't tell," there is no specific timeline to do it. The official says that leaves room that the military wants to use to make sure the eventual change goes well.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Pentagon has not begun formal planning for the repeal. There is a concern the repeal could set off a polarizing debate, an official said. And that, the official said, runs the risk of placing an overstretched fighting force in the middle of a divisive policy fight.

Still, the official said the military expects the ban eventually will be repealed.

Recent polls indicate the ban and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy are losing support.

The Obama administration has opted not to appeal a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court reinstating a challenge to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay service members.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the government would have to show its policy on gays in the military meets a heightened standard of scrutiny, a decision that makes it easier for plaintiff Margaret Witt to win her case. The May 3 deadline for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court has passed, the Wall Street Journal reports.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told the newspaper the administration will continue to defend the law in trial court when the case is remanded, the newspaper says. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” allows gays to serve in the military as long as they don’t disclose their sexual preference.

ABA Journal.com