Can A Pope Be Removed From Office
Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Mar 9, 2022 / 06:05 am
A Catholic bishop in Puerto Rico described his removal from part past Pope Francis on Wednesday as "totally unjust."
Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres, who has led the Diocese of Arecibo since 2010, said he had been asked to resign because he "had not been obedient to the pope nor had I been in sufficient communion with my brother bishops of Puerto Rico."
The Holy Run across press role appear on March 9 that the pope had relieved the 57-twelvemonth-sometime bishop of the pastoral intendance of his diocese. The Vatican did not requite a reason for the pope's decision.
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Álvaro Corrada del Río, S.J., bishop emeritus of Mayagüez, every bit churchly administrator of the diocese in the due north of the island of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States.
In a March 9 declaration, published on the diocesan website, Fernández Torres strongly objected to his removal.
He said: "I deeply regret that in the Church where mercy is so much preached, in exercise some lack a minimum sense of justice."
"No process has been made against me, nor have I been formally defendant of anything and but one day the apostolic delegate [the pope's representative in Puerto Rico] verbally communicated to me that Rome was request me to resign."
"A successor of the apostles is now existence replaced without even undertaking what would be a due approved process to remove a parish priest."
He went on: "I was informed that I had committed no criminal offence but that I supposedly 'had not been obedient to the pope nor had I been in sufficient communion with my blood brother bishops of Puerto Rico.'"
"It was suggested to me that if I resigned from the diocese I would remain at the service of the Church in case at some time I was needed in some other position; an offer that in fact proves my innocence."
"Yet, I did not resign considering I did not want to become an cohort of a totally unjust action and that even now I am reluctant to think that it could happen in our Church."
The imminent removal of Fernández Torres was reported on March 8 by ACI Prensa, CNA's Castilian-language news partner.
The news bureau said that the bishop had clashed with other bishops in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean isle with half dozen dioceses.
ACI Prensa explained that Fernández Torres had initially resisted sending his seminarians to the new Interdiocesan Seminary of Puerto Rico, approved past the Vatican in March 2022.
The bishop of Arecibo had also supported conscientious objection to compulsory vaccination against COVID-19 in a argument published on Aug. 17, 2022.
He fabricated the intervention after Pedro Pierluisi, the governor of Puerto Rico, issued an executive order that all government and healthcare workers, both in public and private institutions, must be vaccinated, also as workers in the hotel manufacture.
In his letter of the alphabet, the bishop said that "it is legitimate for a true-blue Catholic to have doubts about the safety and efficacy of a vaccine given that what the pharmaceutical companies or drug regulatory agencies say is in no style a dogma of organized religion."
"And that safe and efficacy are relevant and necessary data for moral judgment," he explained.
ACI Prensa reported that Fernández Torres refused to sign a joint argument issued on Aug. 24 by the Puerto Rican bishops which said that "in that location is a duty to be vaccinated and that we do non run across how a conscientious objection tin be invoked from Catholic morality."
The news bureau said that Archbishop Ghaleb Moussa Abdalla Bader, the churchly delegate to Puerto Rico, reportedly requested the resignation of Fernández Torres, who refused, citing reasons of conscience.
Information technology said that the bishop was summoned to the Vatican only did not brand the trip due to the pandemic.
Fernández Torres was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 27, 1964. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Arecibo in 1995, at the age of 30.
In 2007, Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico. 3 years later on, he was appointed bishop of Arecibo.
ACI Prensa said that Fernández Torres was an outspoken critic of gender credo, describing new legislation in February 2022 as "religious persecution" and a violation of parental rights.
(Story continues below)
The news bureau said that the instance of Fernández Torres recalled that of the Paraguayan Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, who was removed from function by Pope Francis on Sept. 25, 2022.
Livieres Plano had overseen a thriving seminary in his Diocese Ciudad del Este. He was dismissed later on an apostolic visit amongst accusations of a lack of collegiality.
The bishop was besides criticized for his treatment of the example of a priest who had served every bit vicar general until before long before the visitation. The priest had faced allegations of sexual impropriety, which he denied.
Livieres Plano said that he had refused to sign a resignation letter "on his own initiative, thus wanting to testify to the cease of the truth and the spiritual freedom that a Pastor should have."
He decried what he said was an effort to impose "ideological uniformity" on Paraguay'southward bishops using "the euphemism of 'collegiality.'"
The bishop, who was ordained a priest of Opus Dei, died on Aug. 14, 2022, due to a liver condition.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) Staff are a squad of journalists dedicated to reporting news concerning the Catholic Church around the world. Our bureaus are located in Denver, Washington, and Rome. We have sister language agencies in Kenya, Germany, Peru, Brazil, and Italy. CNA is a service of EWTN News. You can contact us at [email protected] with questions.
Can A Pope Be Removed From Office,
Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250617/catholic-bishop-in-puerto-rico-says-his-removal-by-pope-francis-is-totally-unjust
Posted by: jacobsfitain.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Can A Pope Be Removed From Office"
Post a Comment