Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano is Dead -- Outstanding Bishop of the "Ecclesia Militans" -- Dismissed by Pope Francis

Msgr. Rogelio Livieres, mighty and traditional Bishop, who
was dismissed by the Pope

(Asuncion) Last Friday, 14 August, "on the feast of holy apostle and martyrs Maximilian Kolbe and the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Assumption  it has pleased God  Almighty,  to dismiss His faithful servant, Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, aged 69 years from this world," said Messa in Latino. Msgr. Livieres remained a mighty bishop until his death. He had led his diocese to the rediscovery of tradition within a few years to an unprecedented flowering. In 2014 he was deposed by a conspiracy of a  political viewpoint, by  Pope Francis. Unlike other unjustifiably deposed bishops, Bishop Livieres did not withdraw into seclusion,  but actively continued his apostolate in other ways. At his deposition he said he was following "of course" all the instructions of the pope, but Francis would have to answer for this decision before God.

Born in Argentina He Did Not Sing in the "Choir" of the Latin American Majority Clergy

Bishop Lieveres was Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Born in Argentina, he was at the time of death in hospital  Sanatorio Austral of Buenos Aires. There he was to have a surgery on his liver, but due to sudden heart problems, doctors decided not to perform the operation.

Bishop Lieveres had  been known as an "authentic Catholic voice in Latin America" in three respects. It came about because the distinctive bishop did not sing in the "choir" of the Latin American majority clergy, nor that of his brother Bishops. He stayed away from all spiritual and ideological movements, which have dedicated themselves above all to "the promotion of earthly salvation". This includes above all the liberation theology, but not only. Bishop Livieres complained several times that in the Paraguayan Church a "doctrinal disorder" ruled, which unilaterally affected in favor of secular salvation to the detriment of eternal salvation.

Since 2004, Bishop of Ciudad del Este - Renewal by Rediscovering Tradition

Bishop Livieres, pugnacious bishop of the "church militant" is dead

Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano was a member of the personal prelature of Opus Dei. Born Livieres, 30 August 1945 in Corrientes, the capital of the Argentine province right on the banks of the Parana. In 1978 he was ordained a priest. The Parana River near  the home of Bishop Livieres forms the border between Argentina and Paraguay. From Corrientes there is a view to   the neighboring country, which would be the bishop's second home in the future.

Consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in 2004, Msgr. Livieres took over a diocese with only a few priests. Bishop Livieres followed Benedict XVI. with the freeing of the traditional form of the Roman Rite. The bishop himself publicly celebrated publicly bi-ritually, in the ancient rite. Recently the diocese had celebrated the ancient rite in almost every parish. The rediscovery of the tradition led to an unprecedented flowering in a diocese whose situation was quite dire at the turn of the century.

Old Mass in Parishes - Private Seminary with Nearly 250 Seminarians

The trend in the Church of Paraguay aimed at formation of lay. Bishop Livieres departed from this. For all of Paraguay there was only one seminary in Asuncion. But there was and is where  liberation theology was taught. Bishop Livieres, therefore, founded his own seminary, where there is  "true Catholic teaching and liturgy." In the academic year 2013/2014, the diocesan seminary of Ciudad del Este prepared nearly 250 seminarians for  the priesthood. Far more than all of the other Paraguayan dioceses together. This is considering that  the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, has only twelve percent of Catholics Paraguay. Ciudad del Este gave  visible proof, "that young men who feel called to the priesthood,  do not want an chaotic liberal environment, where the sacramental priesthood is no longer taken seriously, but will be demoted as much as possible in favor of a universal priesthood", so Messa in Latino .

Bishop Livieres had not only been opposed by the old liberal clergy in his diocese, but also drew  the envy and resentment of the other bishops of the country. In the Paraguayan Bishops Conference, he was shunned with his position as an outsider. The conflict was substantive in nature: it was about the understanding of the Church and a different theology. Above all the other bishops seem to have feared that the future of the Church throughout Paraguay could be affected the by many priests formed with a quite different approach in Ciudad del Este.

The Argentine, whose Catholic renewal displeased  confreres and Pope Francis

By 2014, thriving seminary of Ciudad del Este

This opposition of a part of his own clergy and other bishops earned him an Apostolic Visitation. The background was that the former Metropolitan Archbishop of Asuncion, the Redemptorist Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga was, among other things, a homosexual. Bishop Livieres viewed him as one of several reasons for the wrong course of Paraguayan church. Pope Benedict XVI. pulled the handbrake and put aside Cuquejo's Archbishop Coadjutor. It was an intervention which brought the liberal clergy and episcopate of Bishop Livieres in connection, as to who enjoyed prestige in Rome.

The aforementioned   liberal priests in his diocese from 2004 denounced Bishop Livieres to the Apostolic Nuncio. The other bishops of Paraguay advised the need for a visitation. Under Pope Benedict XVI. there was no prospect of such a visitation. With the election of Pope Francis, the situation had however changed fundamentally. Livieres is Argentinian and was personally known to the new pope. Both knew, they were not on the same wavelength. The seminary of Ciudad del Este was a challenge to Buenos Aires, where no less than 30 seminarians were preparing for the priesthood, even though the archdiocese is four times as large as the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.

The Intrigue and the Apostolic Visitor

In July 2014, the Pope sent Cardinal Francis Abril as apostolic visitor to Ciudad del Este. The Pope sent   a close friend to Paraguay, who is as  skeptical about the traditional rite as the head of the Church himself. Cardinal Santos Abril had just discontinued the celebration of the traditional rite in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, whose archpriest he is. The Visitation held forth little good hope. Observers spoke of a correspondence of thought between the liberal clergy, the other bishops and since 2013, head of dissident church leaders in Rome.

Bishop Livieres seems to have sensed or seen through what game was being played and went so far as to make the thoughtless public utterance about the homosexuality of the now Archbishop Emeritus of Asuncion and spoke of an intrigue.That put the opponent into even greater outrage, because now they had a trump card. Such  public accusations  made against church officials are not admissible to the Church.

Rumors and Smoke Screens - Livieres has disturbed the "unity" of the Church of Paraguay

Meanwhile opponents of Bishop Livieres fueled suspicions. The rumor mill has been fired up, the media speculated.  Above all, Bishop Livieres took in priests from the United States who were conspicuously placed at the center. The ingredients of the rumors denominated homosexuality, child abuse (in the US) in connection with  tradition. This game of intrigue can be still found in the Internet, on the Wikipedia page about Bishop Livieres. However, the facts are different. In any case, action was taken against the US priests and not against the bishop. While the bishop was deposed, the priests remained unmolested. He served only as a smokescreen in the intrigue against Bishop Livieres.

The visitor returned to Rome and Bishop Livieres was dismissed by Pope Francis  on September 25, 2014. In the Vatican there are no reasons given for the dismissal, of what the bishop would have been guilty of doing. Yet it can be read out that the real reason for  the dismissal was the front building between Bishop Livieres and the other bishops of Paraguay. The Bishop of Ciudad del Este displeased the other bishops. He was accused of endangering the "unity". In plain English: We found him a troublemaker and wanted to get rid of him. That he could reap rich fruit in his diocese, made him completely unbearable. Its salience was his undoing. Also in Rome unity is seen by Pope Francis as a majority question. However, a significant break was visible through the deposition of Bishop Livieres.

Pope Francis deposed Bishop Livieres, but refused to talk to him

Bishop Livieres had been ordered at the time of dismissal to Rome to lure him away from his diocese. In Rome they made him wait in front of closed doors. He learned of his deposition from the media. He urged the Vatican with Pope Francis to speak. He wanted to know what he was accused and demanded the right to be able to defend against the complaints whatsoever. But Pope Francis refused an interview. A note more that it was about an "ideological" decision ultimately what Pope Francis accused repeatedly traditionally associated circles, but on the other hand the opposite tradition practiced himself. While Bishop Livieres waited in Rome in vain to be received and heard by Francis, Ciudad del Este was seized by an appointed administrator and taken possession of the diocese, leaving the bishop's  sister at the door who managed her brother's household, having changed the locks.

Unlike other dismissed bishops, Bishop Livieres did not  retire. He publicly declared that "of course" he would follow all instructions in papal obedience, but Pope Francis will have to answer for this dismissal before God. At the same time the Bishop Emeritus participated in the founding of Adelante la Fe, a new Spanish-speaking Catholic Internet portal.

Only eleven months after his dubious dismissal, which is symptomatic of the current pontificate, Bishop Livieres died of complications shortly before surgery.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine:
et lux perpetua Luceat egg.
Requiescat in pace. Amen.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: ABC Color (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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AMDG