Ping
Something more serious? Like what?
“friction with other bishops” - that’s a troubling reason, considering how horrible the majority of Bishops are.
Under pope Francis
Marxist Liberation Theology in … Opus Dei, Orthodoxy and Tridentine Mass, out
Pope Francis on Thursday forcibly removed a conservative Paraguayan bishop who had clashed with his fellow bishops on ideological grounds.
The removal of Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement, marks the second time Francis has kicked out a conservative bishop for the sake of keeping peace among the faithful and unity among bishops.
Livieres was named bishop of Paraguay’s second city, Ciudad del Este, in 2004 and immediately disturbed other more progressive Paraguayan bishops by opening his own seminary that followed a much more orthodox line than the main seminary in the capital, Asuncion. Paraguay’s bishops are known for their progressive bent in a poor country where liberation theology found fertile ground.
Relations between Livieres and the rest of Paraguay’s bishops worsened when he got into a public spat with the then-archbishop of Asuncion, whom he accused of being gay.
Earlier this year, the Vatican sent a cardinal to investigate problems in Livieres’ diocese, particularly concerning the seminary. The investigator reported back to Francis, and Livieres was summoned to Rome this week to discuss his future.
Colleagues say he refused Vatican requests to resign, leaving Francis with what the Vatican said was the “onerous” decision to remove him. The Vatican said in a statement Thursday that Francis acted for the good of the church in the diocese and for the sake of unity among Paraguayan bishops.
The Vatican spoke of the need to maintain unity among Paraguay’s bishops, suggesting that political and ideological issues were of far greater concern to Rome.
As a result, the removal underscored the deep ideological shift in the Catholic Church with Francis in charge.
Vatican watchers say it is highly unlikely that Pope Benedict XVI would have removed either Livieres since he had strong supporters among the more conservative prelates in Rome who appreciated their firm orthodoxy in the face of opposition from more progressive parts of the church.
In a letter late Thursday to the head of the Vatican office for bishops, Livieres complained that he had never received the written report from the Vatican investigation and was never asked to respond to any of its findings.
He called the decision to remove him “unfounded and arbitrary” and based purely on ideological grounds, with the decks stacked against him from the start by fellow bishops jealous that his seminary was attracting new priests while theirs in Asuncion withered.
He even took a slight dig at Francis, complaining that while there is much talk under Francis about mercy, dialogue, decentralization of the church and respect for the authority of local church leaders, “I never got the chance to speak to Pope Francis, not even to clarify any doubts or concerns.”
Francis has made clear his disdain for traditionalist Catholics, finding them self-absorbed retrogrades who are out of touch with the church’s evangelizing mission today. His emphasis on a “church for the poor” is also something of a different focus than Opus Dei, which has a reputation of being an elitist movement that, active in charity.
The leading group of the Paraguayan Bishops makes no secret of their satisfaction with the dismissal of Bishop Livieres. Livieres was considered a militant defender of the orthodoxy. In almost every parish of his diocese the Holy Mass was celebrated in the Old Rite. His seminary has many more seminarians than any other of the Paraguayan dioceses and about seven times as many seminarians as the much larger Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. (Ciudad del Este,321,000 vs Buenos Aires, 3 million)
“.. friction with fellow bishops.”
A little too much “friction” with his “fellow” bishops will do it every time.
Now we know for sure that Francis can remove a bishop.
The fact that Cardinal Dolan is still in New York means that Francis endorses Dolan’s serving as Grand Marshal of a Gay Pride Parade.
It’s because the bishop was conservative and had a very successful seminary that had drawn people off from the other (liberal) dioceses.
I wish this bishop had not given the Community of St John priest a second chance, although I suspect that he was Cardinal O’Connor with Fr Bruce Ritter. The Cardinal called him in, asked Ritter if the allegations were true, and then when Ritter said that they weren’t true, O’Connor went out and told the press that he had full confidence in Ritter. The next day, the tapes came out and Ritter admitted it. I think it broke O’Connor’s heart.