AP

The Vatican said Friday that Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who was accused of sexual assault by a former theology student.

The Vatican announced the decision without comment in the daily news bulletin of the Holy See's press office. The one-sentence announcement cited Weakland's age as the reason for the resignation.

Weakland submitted the resignation in April because he had turned 75, the mandatory retirement age. But he pressed the Vatican to speed up a decision on Thursday after acknowledging that he had paid $450,000 to the adult student to settle a claim of sexual assualt more than two decades ago.

No successor was immediately named. Often a bishop's replacement is named weeks or months later.

John Paul was traveling in Bulgaria when the announcement was made. His spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said the pope was abreast of developments in the Weakland case.

"Of course, he reads the newspapers," Navarro-Valls said.

Weakland acknowledged that he paid the settlement after the accuser, Paul Marcoux, went public earlier Thursday. But he denied ever molesting anyone.

In a statement released Thursday, Weakland said, "I have never abused anyone. I have not seen Paul Marcoux for more than 20 years. Because I accept the agreement's confidentiality provision, I will make no comment about its contents."

Marcoux, now 53, said he was drunk when Weakland tried to assault him in 1979, when he was a Marquette University student in his 30s. He said he did not go to police because two priests — a cousin and a friend — advised against it.

Last month the pope summoned U.S. cardinals to the Vatican to an extraordinary meeting about recent sex scandals, whose legal settlements have cost U.S. dioceses dearly.

In his meeting with the cardinals, the pope condemned sexual abuse by priests as a crime and said there was no room in the priesthood for clerics guilty of such abuse.

Since January, bishops in Palm Beach, Fla., Poland and Ireland have resigned following allegations of sexual abuse. Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law has resisted calls to resign over charges he covered up sexual abuse by priests under his jurisdiction.