Vatican Bars Prelate From Receiving Honor

A Vatican agency has barred a Roman Catholic university in Switzerland from granting an honorary degree to Archbishop Rembert C. Weakland of Milwaukee because of statements the prelate has made about abortion.

In issuing the order to the University of Fribourg, Archbishop Pio Laghi, head of the Vatican Congregation of Education, said that Weakland “has recently taken certain positions relative to the question of abortion which are not without doctrinal importance and which are causing a great deal of confusion among the faithful in the United States. The granting of a doctorate honoris causa by a prestigious faculty of theology would only add to this confusion.”

Laghi, the former papal representative to the United States, did not specify which statement by Weakland he had in mind. The Milwaukee archbishop said he had sent to the Vatican copies of a statement he issued last spring on hearings he had held with women in the Milwaukee archdiocese to gather their views on abortion.

Although he upheld church teachings on the subject, Weakland said that moral principles should have “a consensus of the population” before they are enacted into law and that politicians trying to face the issue with a respect for life should be given “as much latitude as reason permits.” He also criticized the tactics of many anti-abortion activists who he said were using “ugly and demeaning” rhetoric that was driving away potential supporters.