On Monday afternoon Pope Francis opened the Spring General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference with a speech. Unlike any that has ever been given. The Pope as Bishop of Rome as automatically been the President since the formation of the Episcopal Conference. All Popes so far, however, are represented by a delegate appointed by them, but never intervened obviously by their presence in the work of the Bishops' Conference. With the election of Pope Francis everything seemed to be quite different.
Pope Francis Intevenes a More in Bishops Conference than any pope before
Surprisingly the Argentine Pope announced that he would dispense with the nominal presidency and offered the bishops of the to choose a president for themselves from their own ranks in the future as all the other Bishops' Conferences (except Belgium). Since then Pope Francis has only intervened more and more significantly in the Italian Episcopal Conference than any other pope before him. The president, appointed by Benedict XVI., Archbishop Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco of Genoa although he is still in office, however, Pope Francis has appointed a deputy and a new Secretary General. Both offices have been occupied on a proposal of the presiding delegate. Bagnasco only learned later of the personnel decisions of the Pope, which equaled his disempowerment in both cases.
"Only laconically," says the Vaticanista Sandro Magister, was he informed by the Holy See with a terse press statement of a change in Personnel. "The Holy Father Francis, has appointed S. Ex. Monsignor José Luis Mollaghan, formerly Metropolitan Archbishop of Rosario (Argentina), as a member of the to be erected commission for clerics at the CDF to address delicta graviora."
Punitive Action Against Archbishop Mollaghan of Rosario
Rosario is an Archdiocese of two million inhabitants. "Archbishop Mollaghan, at 68, has certainly not yet reached the end of his career," said Magister. The abrupt removal from Argentina, his appeal to Rome under the direct control of the pope and his banishment to a not even existing curial phantom office, which is not yet built, says everything about the fact that the impact is definitive," says the Vaticanist.
To understand the reason for this punishment by Pope Francis against one of the most renowned Argentine bishops, Magister suggests the "most accurate and credible", to look up the previously existing Pope's biographies in the book, "Francis, Life and Revolution" by the Argentine journalist Elisabetta Piqué .
Criticism of Bergoglio: Too Lenient About Politics, Pastoral Gestures Too Daring, Too Little Defense of the Doctrine of the Faith
In the chapter, that pique applied by the opponents of Bergoglio in Argentina, Archbishop Mollaghan in place together with Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata and the Apostolic Nuncio Adriano Bernardini in the first place. Mollagahan had not only accused the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires of not to defending Catholic doctrine, but of making bold, exaggerated or inappropriate gestures and being too pastorally soft on government.
Contact for the critics Bergoglios in Rome were originally from Argentina Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and former Argentine ambassador to the Holy See, Esteban "Cacho" Caselli who appears now as before a continuing Gentleman of His Holiness appearing in the Pontifical Yearbook.
Past Episcopal Appointments Archbishop Bergoglio
The opposition against the line of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, says Piqué, reaches its climax in 2005/2006 reaches its climax when Nuncio Bernardini appointmented several bishops who were "embossed conservatives". Among them was also the new Archbishop of Rosario, José Luis Mollaghan and that of Resistencia, Fabriciano Sigampa. The appointments caused, according to Piqué, progressive bishops unrest and discontent. Neither Mollaghan nor Sigampa had been named by the other Argentine bishops for these dioceses, said the journalist of La Nacion .
The Argentine website Pagina Catolica is a little clearer. The appointment of Archbishop Mollaghan was made by bypassing three candidates by Archbishop Bergoglio, who had operated as Archbishop of Buenos Aires in an intensive personnel policy in the appointment of bishops. While Bergoglio let the theologian who was admonished by Rome, Galician Andrés Torres Queiruga, whom the CDF accused of "implicitly" denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ, continue to speak freely in his diocese in 2012, Mallaghan imposed a ban for his diocese in Catholic institutions.
Archbishop Sigampa has been emeritus since February 2013. As was the case under Benedict XVI. he was still Archbishop until the completion of the 77th year of life in office. On February 26, 2013 it took two days after the resignation German Pope for the resignation of Sigampa. Archbishop Mollaghan has now been "hit and sunk" by Pope Francis, says Magister. Only Archbishop Aguer of La Plata is still in place. "But his fate seems sealed", so at least says the Vaticanist Magister.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo
image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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