[xzins]

One reason the Church is different from a corporation is the sacrament of holy orders. When a man is ordained, he is changed in his very being; he is "configured" to Christ as head and shepherd. This new identity is permanent and cannot be removed. Even if a priest is removed from the priesthood ("defrocked"), he remains a priest, sacramentally speaking, so a priest or bishop can’t be fired in the sense that a corporate employee can.

Quote from the article I thought you'd be interested in.

[baa39]

I don’t think informed Catholics expect a bishop to be ‘fired’ in that sense, some of this article is quite obvious and simplistic, maybe for non-Catholics it helps clarify some things.

The issue is that priest or bishop who is in a role that’s not suitable for him (eg parish work) can be removed from it and he still remains a priest. He may even find greater fulfillment of his calling practicing in a field much different, that should be discerned with his superiors. (In Mahony’s case, for example, were he to be immediately removed from his current role, I think he might make a very good errand boy for the Holy Father’s secretary’s secretary).

It’s interesting that even though the author carefully explains these reasons for not removing a bishop, he still has his own “fantasy” (which is good for a few chuckles):

http://thrownback.blogspot.com/2007/07/even-priests-have-fantasies-so.html