Beliefs

Peter Steinfels reported in The New York Times, July 27, 1996.

...Then on the Fourth of July, the 69-year-old prelate tossed a firecracker into the welfare debate. In an op-ed article in The Washington Post, the Archibishop urged President Clinton to refuse the scores of Federal waivers necessary for Wisconsin's sweeping reform of its welfare system.

...

Archbishop Weakland wrote that the plan, Wisconsin Works, or W-2, which requires almost all welfare recipients to take jobs, some for subsidized wages, was "not morally justifiable."

...

"The Bishop should come back to Wisconsin and read his Bible instead of playing piano in New York," snapped Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin.