that commission in 1968. On September 29, 1967, Weakland was elected the abbot primate of the Benedictine Confederation, to which office he was later re-elected in 1973. During this period, he served as chancellor ex officio of the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm. He also served as a member of the Vatican Council of Superiors General from 1968 until 1977. In 1968, Weakland presided over an international, inter-religious monastic conference near Bangkok, Thailand, at which the American Trappist monk and writer, Thomas Merton, died. Weakland administered the Last Rites of the Catholic Church to Merton and arranged for the body to be flown back on a U.S. military airplane to the United States. Archbishop of Milwaukee On September 20, 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed Weakland as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was consecrated on November 8, in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee by Archbishop Jean Jadot. One of Weakland's first actions was to sell the four bedroom suburban home where his predecessor had lived and move to the cathedral rectory.<ref>[http://old.post-gazette.com/nation/20020525weakland0525p3.asp Rodgers-Melnick, Ann. "Archbishop escaped poverty to become leading liberal Catholic voice", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 25, 2002]</ref> Weakland's tenure was divisive due to his pronounced liberal views and liturgical experiments. While unapproachable for some and jarring in his coverups for abusive priests, he also sought to reach Catholics on the margins of church and society. He gave support for the Milwaukee AIDS Project. Amidst abortion controversies, Weakland participated in public "listening sessions", encouraging Catholic women to share their views on the issue. On December 21, 1999, Weakland received a doctorate in musicology – "with distinction" – from Columbia University, for his thesis on "The Office Antiphons of the Ambrosian Chant". Retirement and legacy On May 24, 2002, Pope John Paul II accepted Weakland's resignation as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. His retirement was overshadowed by revelation of a large payout to prevent a lawsuit. The archdiocese had paid $450,000 to Paul Marcoux, a former seminarian studying at Marquette University, to settle a claim he made against the archbishop more than two decades earlier stemming from a long-term relationship with Weakland. Weakland admitted to the affair and apologized after the story broke. Following his retirement, Weakland twice announced he was moving to a Benedictine abbey – his former home at St. Vincent Archabbey, then to St. Mary's Abbey in Newark New Jersey. However, the Benedictines