Bishop of Mantua, Italy Removes Faithful Priest

Church Militant ^ | 3/1/19 | Juliana Freitag

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Fr. Angelo Bisi: 'I'm not fighting to keep my place as a parish priest; I'm fighting for Christian values'

A bishop in northern Italy has removed a priest who opposed relaxing restrictions on Holy Communion to the divorced and civilly remarried.

The diocese of Mantua, which recently implemented a pastoral ministry offering the possibility of admission to the sacraments for those in adulterous unions, removed the priest from his parish duties allegedly because of his outspoken defense of Church teaching.

Father Angelo Bisi, in charge of the parishes of Motteggiana-Villa Saviola, was removed from Villa Saviola after several years of contention with some parishioners, but the drastic decision came only after Fr. Bisi refused to read Bp. Gianmarco Busca's letter to the faithful presenting the Mantuan directives concerning the divorced and civilly remarried

The directives were inspired by the archbishop of Buenos Aires' guidelines for the application of chapter eight of Amoris Laetitia, which states that adulterers may also be admitted to Holy Communion — contrary to longstanding Church doctrine and discipline. Mantua's new pastoral ministry makes no mention of the fact that extramarital relations are adulterous, nor does it mention the need to repent or the option to remain in continence, as confirmed by number 84 of Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio.