The Most Rev. Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B
The Les Aspin Distinguished Public Service Award 2001

The Most Rev. Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B., archbishop of Milwaukee for the past 24 years, celebrated his 50th year of priesthood this year. Appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1977, he serves almost 700,000 Catholics, 3,000 religious figures, 155 schools and many lay organizations.

A highly educated man, Archbishop Weakland is also a great advocate of education for others. He has enthusiastically supported the Rev. Timothy J. O’Brien’s priestly ministry in higher education at Marquette University for the past 24 years, including serving as a guest lecturer to the Les Aspin Center’s African Democracy Training Program. This unique program brings community leaders from Kenya, Ghana and other African nations to the United States for training in democratic principles and practices.

Archbishop Weakland is vice president of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. He is a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and past chairman of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ad hoc Committee on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, which drafted the U.S. Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on the Economy.

The archbishop previously chaired the U.S. Catholic Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and recently retired as co-chair of the dialogue between bishops of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and as co-chair for the consultation of theologians. He is a member of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Committee on the Catholic Common Ground Initiative and is an adviser on the North American Board for East-West Dialog. In 1997, he served as a delegate from the U.S. National Bishops’ Conference to the Synod for America, which was held in Rome.

Archbishop Weakland entered religious life as a Benedictine novice at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1951 in Subiaco, Italy, and pursued studies there as well as in France and Germany in music. He also studied music at the Julliard School of Music and at Columbia University, both in New York. From 1957 to 1963, he taught music at his alma mater, St. Vincent College. In 1999 he received a Ph.D. in musicology "with distinction" from Columbia University. He also received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Marquette University in 1981.