Weakland says he didn't know priests' abuse was crime

More unintentional dark comedy from his upcoming memoirs. Annysa Johnson reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature," Weakland says in the book, A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church, due out in June.Weakland said he initially "accepted naively the common view that it was not necessary to worry about the effects on the youngsters: either they would not remember or they would 'grow out of it.'"

Somehow this lack of understanding of its criminal nature didn't keep them from trying to convince District Attorneys not to prosecute priests for it. (via SNAP)

See Archbishop Weakland Memoirs to be Released