New Archbishop For Rosario, Argentina -- Pope Francis and EpiscopalAppointments

Left Archbishop Mollaghan -- Right Bishop Eduardo Martin

(Rom/Buenos Aires) Pope Francis has just accepted the resignation of a Metropolitan at his 75th birthday. Pope Benedict XVI. lengthened the time in office of Archbishops, as a rule, by at least two years. That is till now the most noteworthy alteration which the Pope has undertaken for Bishop appointments. The appointment of new Bishops also proceed under Pope Francis in the familiar "Roman tempo". Some exceptions are noteworthy in Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis. There has taken place in the last nearly 15 months of this pontificate already a growing exchange of offices at the head of Dioceses' and -- as it appears -- without any input from the Prefect of the Bishops' Congregation, Marc Cardinal Oullet.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had exerted significant influence on numerous Episcopal appointments in Argentina as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Most of the appointments appeared to be poor. And so some appointments took place against his will. These were not friendly to the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and present Pope.

Papal "Purge" Among Argentine Bishops

Above all, Nuntius Bernardini did not promote Bergoglio's candidates, rather attempted to appoint Bishops, who were close to the ecclesiastical sensibility of Pope Benedict XVI.. A "defect", which did not win him Bergolio's amity. Among the ones who got appointed past the Archbishop of Buenos Aires was the "conservative" Archbishop of Rosario, José Luis Mollaghan (see our earlier translation "Pope Francis Promotes Critic to Useless Position").

On 19. May the Diocese of Rosario found itself without an Archbishop over night again. Pope Francis "promoted" his former rival to Rome and appointed him to lead a department in the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith, that really didn't exist. Also it was a way of running someone out on a rail. Msgr. Mollaghan was born in 1946.

In the 4th of July ernannte Pope Francis named Msgr. Eduardo Eliseo Martin as the new Archbishop von Rosario. Archbishop Martin, Born in 1953 is a priest of the Diocese of Venado Tuerto. After ten years as a pastor he was named Vicar General of the Diocese in 1990 and at the same time became Cathedral pastor of Venado Tuerto in 1993. In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI. Appointed him Bishop of Villa de la Concepción del Río Cuarto.

The new Archbishop had good contacts with the community Comunione e Liberazione (CL), which he was introduced to while in seminary at La Plata. The monthly magazine 30 Days of CL published interviews and sermons of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then little known in Europe, Jorge Mario Bergolio.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: José Francisco de la Cigoña/Wikicommons (Montage Katholisches.info)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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