Posted on 09/10/2021 8:28:32 AM PDT by ebb tide
Fri Sep 10, 2021 - 9:20 am EDTFri Sep 10, 2021 - 9:26 am EDT
TRNAVA, Slovakia, (LifeSiteNews) — A priest has told LifeSiteNews that Pope Francis is likely to rehabilitate a deposed Slovakian bishop suspected of supporting homosexual priests.
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Slovakia next week.
According to a credible source, who wishes to remain anonymous but is known to LifeSiteNews, Bishop Róbert Bezák of Slovakia, 61, removed by Pope Benedict in 2012 for reasons undisclosed at the time, recently met with Pope Francis in Rome and might soon be rehabilitated as Archbishop of Trnava.
Pope Francis will be visiting Slovakia and Hungary next week and is scheduled to meet with President Čaputová. It is believed Bezák will use the opportunity to meet again with Pope Francis and appeal to him to regain his former position. Bezák recently went to Rome where he lunched with the pontiff, and in a July 7 podcast with Slovak newspaper Dennik N, Bezák discussed the possibility of a meeting with the Pope during his visit and its potential outcome.
“I am looking forward to him coming, and I am a little bit anticipating how some things are going to shift or be resolved, or what he is going to say,” Bezák said.
According to LifeSiteNews’ source, it is being said among Slovakian clergy that Pope Francis is indeed planning to rehabilitate the former archbishop.
Bezák was appointed archbishop of Trnava in April 2009 when he was only 49. He kept that post for three years until Pope Benedict removed him in January 2012, following an apostolic visit led by Bishop Jan Baxant, 72, of Litoměřice. The reasons for the removal were not made public at the time, but according to insiders consulted by LifeSiteNews’ source, they involved statements contrary to church doctrine as well as suspicions of homosexual misconduct and financial mismanagement.
The anonymous priest told LifeSiteNews that in the three years Bezák served as archbishop of Trnava, he was “an active supporter and promoter of the homosexual agenda” within the Church in Slovakia.
“He helped active homosexual priests and seminarians to get good posts within the diocese and the ones that were expelled from other dioceses, he welcomed into his own,” the cleric told LifeSiteNews.
The same source also gave concrete examples of Bezák’s controversial management of the diocese, stating that the former archbishop was known to give scandal by going frequently to a sauna and appearing naked in front of others, thereby degrading his office. The well-informed source also told LifeSiteNews that Bezák “helped and promoted a priest responsible for breaking up a marriage and a family.” The priest in question, whom our anonymous source did not name, allegedly seduced, and had an affair with, a husband and father of four. In spite of apparently being aware of the priest’s record, the archbishop emeritus did everything to protect and promote him: “He even appointed him rector of the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Trnava,” stated our anonymous source.
During his time as archbishop of Trnava, Bezàk is alleged to have showed contempt and disdain towards priests attached to traditional practices and expressions of the faith such as wearing the cassock. The anonymous priest told LifeSiteNews that Bezák used to criticize and even ridicule them openly.
The former archbishop’s financial management of the diocese was likewise cause for concern, according to our anonymous priest, who alleged that Bezák rented the dining room of the Archbishop’s palace to a private wine company in order to make profits.
“The floor of the historical dining room sustained damages as a result,” the anonymous priest stated, adding that Bezák, who did not want to live in the archbishop’s palace, made plans to sell it. The archbishop was apparently unable to make the sell, however, as the commission headed by Bishop Baxant removed him from his office before he could do so.
Though the grounds for his removal were not made public at the time, our source alleged it involved sexual misconduct, “in accordance with the Vatican’s policy of hiding the real motive of a removal whenever homosexual misconduct is involved.”
Our anonymous priest also alleged that Bezák’s case shows strong similarities with that of Archbishop Juliusz Paetz of Poznan, Poland, who resigned in 2002 following accusations of sexual abuse against seminarians. According to gloria.tv, Bezák was also accused of expressing “statements contrary to Church doctrine regarding ‘female priesthood,’, priestly celibacy, and premarital sex.”
Bezák’s involvement with homosexual lobbies may go as far back as 1992. That year, according to our anonymous source, he was taken as a witness by police following the arrest of Poland’s Bishop Józef Życiński, who was involved in a brawl that took place in a gay bar.
“At the time, Cardinal Miroslav Vlk of Prag had done everything he could to protect that Polish bishop,” stated our source, who alleged that Bezák was present at the gay bar on that occasion.
At the time of his removal in 2012, Bezák stated he didn’t know the reasons for this decision and later intensively sought to rehabilitate himself. Bezák told his congregation that the Vatican had made “serious allegations” against him and barred him from speaking to the media. He later wrote a book called Vyznanie, “Confessions” in Slovak, in which he discusses the dismissal which he deems unfair. Bezák also received strong support from part of the Slovakian clergy and faithful which he retains to this day, and a Facebook page called “We support Bishop Bezák” was created in his defence.
Immediately after his unexpected dismissal, Bezák returned to the parish of Radvaň in the district of Banská Bystrica where he had been ordained priest in 1984. Later he served as parish priest (2005-2008) before his promotion to archbishop of Trnava. The Bishop’s Office in Banská Bystrica confirmed that Bezák returned there to serve as an assistant priest following his dismissal.
In December 2013, the archbishop emeritus moved to a Redemptorist monastery in the Italian town of Bussolengo, near Verona. Bezák had been the superior of the Redemptorist community in Banská Bystrica-Radvan during his time as parish priest there.
The election of Pope Francis to the Petrine office gave Bezák a new opportunity to plead his case. On June 2, 2014, he attended a general audience with Pope Francis where he was able to greet the Pope and request a personal audience with him. The audience did not take place at that time, however.
In January 2015, Bezák returned to Slovakia and on April 9, 2015, Slovak President Andrej Kiska discussed Bezák’s case with Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican. The following day, on April 10, Bezák himself met with the Pope during a private audience organized by Czech cardinal Miloslav Vlk, that same cardinal who, according to our anonymous source, helped Polish bishop Józef Życiński in 1992 following his fight in the gay club. The private audience lasted for 50 minutes.
On May 18, 2015, to deny rumors that Pope Francis had agreed to rehabilitate Bezák during the audience, the Vatican Secretariat of State released the following statement:
On 10 April 2015, the Holy Father Francis received in audience J. Ex. Mons. Róbert Bezák, CSsR, Archbishop Emeritus of Trnava, accompanied by H.E. Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague. The Holy See, saddened by the inaccurate and incorrect interpretations concerning this meeting, wishes to clarify that it had a purely private purpose, that of expressing the Holy Father’s human, and Christian charity to a fellow bishop – without entering into his previous affairs. On the contrary (…) we stress that the measure which the Holy Father took at one time against Msgr. Bezák was preceded by a thorough examination and objective assessment of all available components, especially those that emerged in the course of the apostolic visitation carried out in the Archdiocese of Trnava in January and February of 2012. The Holy See likewise notes that the procedures used in this case were those enforced throughout the Catholic Church, in which the notification of the removal of the episcopal see from a bishop (cf. canon 416) does not require a papal decree. On the contrary, the practice is that the Holy Father’s decision is communicated to the person concerned through the Apostolic Nunciature and then made public through publication in L’Osservatore Romano. At the same time, the Holy Father wishes to take this opportunity to express his gratitude to the Slovak bishops for their love and fidelity to the successor of the Holy Apostle Peter and invites all the faithful to strengthen communion with their pastors and to love and support the Church, which is in Slovakia as heir to the great tradition going back to Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Between 1994 and 2000, Bezák had taught moral theology at the Banská Bystrica Institute of theology as at the Aloisianum University of Trnva, and in 2017, he took up a post as a teacher of religion and ethics at the C.S Lewis Bilingual High School near Bratislava. There he allegedly continued to promote very liberal views and openly express opinions contrary to Catholic moral doctrine.
Since 2017, Bezák has given numerous interviews during which he discussed his dismissal from the role of archbishop of Trnava and his life’s journey since then. One of these interviews was in December 2020 with daily Dennik N, which described Bezák as “a teacher and a son” who cares for his elderly parents. The interview also made mention of Bezák’s support of left-wing and pro-abortion president Zuzana Čaputová, 48.
In a July 7, 2021 interview with Dennik N, it was revealed that Bezák’s father had died in March and that his mother is ill with Alzheimers. Due to these difficult family circumstances, Bezák had to resign from his position at the C.S. Lewis Bilingual High School.
LifeSiteNews reached out to Bishop Bezák via the high school, but has not yet received a response.
The anonymous priest told LifeSiteNews that in the three years Bezák served as archbishop of Trnava, he was “an active supporter and promoter of the homosexual agenda” within the Church in Slovakia.
“He helped active homosexual priests and seminarians to get good posts within the diocese and the ones that were expelled from other dioceses, he welcomed into his own,” the cleric told LifeSiteNews.
Bergoglio shows mercy towards homos, divorcees, muslims, etc. but nothing but contempt towards traditional Catholics.
Ping
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