No "Brotherly Visitation" for "Open" Diocese

Bishop Sergio Osvaldo Buenanueva of San Francisco in
Cordoba, in photo as Auxiliary Bishop of Mendoza,
in the background is the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires,
Jorge Mario Bergoglio

(Rome) The betrayal of the priestly promise of chastity is as old as the priesthood, but it has always been an offense, both to the faithful and to the unbelievers, the latter being fond of using it as a moral charge against the Church. In Luther's time this was no different from today. After his ordination, Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss "reformer", first fell into the mills of politics, then into the bed of a woman whom he impregnated, and finally pushed into the front row of the Reformation. In Argentina, the media, not unlike in Europe, are reporting with a mixture of scandal and schadenfreude on the third priest of the diocese of San Francisco and Cordoba, who had to give up his priesthood in the past year because he was not only in a "father" the spiritual sense but also in the physical. The most recent case concerns the priest Marcio Peironi.

The Diocese, established in 1961, has a total of thirty-two diocesan priests, which means that the loss of three its priests is a painful jolt for the diocese. For the time being, there is no indication that Rome intends to send the diocese a "fraternal visitation" as has already happened to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in neighboring Paraguay in 2014.

The difference seems to lie in the fact that Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este, a traditional Bishop from the ranks of Opus Dei was, by his extensive pastoral work, had "shamed" the liberation theology-inspired Paraguayan Episcopal Conference. The Diocese of San Francisco de Cordoba does, however, constitute an "openness to the surprises of the Holy Spirit", as the newspaper La Capital wrote in yesterday's edition.

Bishop Livieres abandoned the nationwide unified education of the seminarians and in 2007 founded his own diocesan priestly seminary. There the candidates were trained in both forms of the Roman rite and in the traditional sense. The Ciudad del Este priestly seminary had enrolled two and a half times as many seminarians in 2014 as all other dioceses in Paraguay. Although only about ten per cent of Paraguayan faithful belong to this diocese, Bishop Livieres had 70 per cent of all seminarians in the country. This had to do with the different understanding of the priesthood and church. But that was not desired, as such an imbalance would soon have had country-wide consequences.

The "fraternal" inclination to Ciudad del Este

Bishop Livieres was regarded by the other bishops as a "troublemaker". One of them, the liberation theorist, Fernando Lugo, Bishop of San Pedro, the political commitment was so important that he had to be released from his episcopal rights and duties in order to become President of the Union as part of a left coalition. It turned out later that the confinement had more to do with the repeated violation of his celibacy promise. He is the father of at least two children from different women. He has had sexual relations with other women as a priest and bishop. As President of the Republic, he was removed from office after less than four years. Today, he sits as a representative of the Left Party Frente Guasu, which is a member of the Socialist International (SI), in the Paraguayan Senate.

Pope Francis sent a "brotherly visitor" to Bishop Livieres in 2014, he was so fraternal that the bishop was dismissed shortly afterwards, without mentioning a reason and under shameful circumstances, without being able to justify himself against the charge. Pope Francis even denied him audience. Francis will have to justify himself before God, wrote Bishop Livieres in a statement to his deposition. One year later the bishop sadly succumbed to a serious illness.

The priestly seminary of Ciudad del Este still exists, but has been rejoined by the new bishop to the National Seminary of Asuncion. The number of seminarians has fallen to a quarter after a massive purge of "conservative" candidates. Various traditional communities were dissolved, priests and orders were removed from the diocese, numerous changes took place.

The reaction is quite different in the diocese of San Francisco and Cordoba in Argentina. There is no "brotherly" visitation, because the diocese is considered "open to the surprises of the Holy Spirit". To which belongs, apparently, for the newspaper La Capital, also the procreation of children by priests.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Ciudad de San Francisco (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches... 
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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

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Bishop Livieres: "Pope Francis Will Have to Answer Before God For The Dismissal"

Bishop Livieres: "I am the victim of ideological persecution"

(Asuncion / Rome) Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, dismissed yesterday from his office by Pope Francis,  sees himself as a victim of an intrigue, which he describes as "ideological persecution." In an open letter to the Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the bishop wrote that Pope Francis will have to answer for his decision before God.

At the same time Bishop Livieres announced that he has as yet no knowledge of the contents of the investigation report of the Papal Visitor, Cardinal Santos Abril. As a "son of the Church,"  he added,  he will abide by the arrangement of the Pope. The letter to Cardinal Ouellet was published by the Paraguayan daily ABC yesterday.

The Vatican  justified  the resignation for "pastoral reasons" and the "unity of the bishops."  Specific allegations against the bishop dismissed were not disclosed. The Bishop sees himself as a victim of an intrigue of the Paraguayan Bishops. Pope Francis arranged for an Apostolic Visitation in Livieres' diocese  after he publicly accused the Archbishop of Asuncion of homosexuality and demanded his removal from office.

The leading group of the Paraguayan Bishops makes no secret of their satisfaction with the dismissal of Bishop Livieres.  Livieres was considered a militant defender of the orthodoxy. In almost every parish of his diocese the Holy Mass was celebrated in the Old Rite. His seminary  altogether has many  more seminarians than any other of the Paraguayan dioceses and about seven times as many seminarians as the much larger Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.

With the statement that he is "a victim of ideological persecution," Bishop Livieres gave an indication of the reasons behind the sensational impeachment.

Bishop Livieres like  Pope Francis is from Argentina.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Aciprensa

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
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Vocations Boom Via Old Mass in Paraguay -- Pope Francis Orders Visitation

Pope Francis' Bull

(Rome / Asuncion) Pope Francis has ordered an Apostolic Visitation of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. The Diocese of Alto Paraná on the border of Brazil and Argentina is one of the most traditional and has an above average number of priestly and religious vocations. Why the Pope has ruled for the visitation of a comparatively thriving diocese, while in the capital Asuncion, the Archbishop is a nuisance, the news about aberrosexuality is all over town?

Pope Francis has paid special "attention" to diocese, orders and communities that are connected to tradition, since the beginning of the pontificate. Ciudad del Este is one of these dioceses. The bishop's see is located in the second largest city of the Latin American country. It covers an area of ​​nearly 30,000 square kilometers and holds 700,000 Catholics. This represents 98 percent of the population.

Under Bishop Livieres There is a Big Boost in the Diocese

The Bishop of Ciudad del Este is the Argentinean Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, whom Pope John Paul II had appointed in 2004 at the head of the Paraguayan Diocese was only established in 1993. Since then the diocese has experienced an amazing recovery. The majority of the clergy consists of  priests from religious orders. By 2007, the diocese only had 12 diocesan priests and 70 religious priests. Today, they are preparing in the seminary more than 250 candidates for the priesthood. Almost all parishes of the diocese celebrate in the Old Rite.

As Blogonicus reported, it was confirmed by the Apostolic Nuncio to Paraguay, Monsignor Eliseo Ariotti, that the Holy See will conduct an apostolic visitation of the diocese. Pope Francis has instructed so that the former Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Santos April y Castello, archpriest of the Patriarchal Basilica since 2011, Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Santa Maria Maggiore has been in the spotlight since the election of Pope Francis because the miraculous image of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani is a favorite church of the Argentine Pope, which he has already visited several times. In Santa Maria Maggiore, oppressed brothers of the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate perform the altar service. There was the seat of the dissident group, which carried out a radical upheaval in the Order with the help of the Congregation of Religious. At the beginning of the month celebration of the Immemorial Mass of All Ages established since the Jubilee Year 2000, was abolished by Cardinal Santos Abril without replacement. Pope Francis has been friends with Cardinal Abril from the time when he was 2000-2003 nuncio in Argentina.

With Cardinal Abril, Bishop Milton Luis Troccoli Cebélio will perform the visitation from Montevideo. The Paraguayan Episcopal Conference announced the upcoming Apostolic Visitation at a specially convened press conference.



Diocese of Ciudad del Este "Oasis in the Modernist Morass"

Bishop Rogelio Liveires at March for Life in
Ciudad del Este

"The Diocese of Ciudad del Este is an oasis in the theological modernist morass of Latin America," said Messa in Latino. Bishop Livieres helped settle many traditional communities and start-ups in his diocese, which he offers "fatherly protection and spiritual retreat," said the tradition associated website. A diocesan priest from Ciudad del Este has written about the announced visitation by Rome: "It seems important to me, be noted that the prosecution does not proceed against the clergy of the diocese, where Don Rogerio Livieres is a popular and highly respected chief shepherd, but by other bishops who do not have his zeal. The attack comes from the commissions of the Episcopal Conference, led by progressives and where tradition and the Catholic faith is guided by the Bishop of Ciudad del Este, this is unbearable."

More Seminarians Than all Other Dioceses

Ten years after the appointment of Bishop Livieres, the fruits of his pastoral ministry are obvious. The Diocese of Ciudad del Este, which includes only twelve percent of Catholics, today with about 250 seminarians, has more seminarians than all other dioceses in Paraguay. Training in the diocesan seminary is know to be "truly Catholic in its doctrine and liturgy." As well known that other bishops are nervous about how demand the religious congregation in the case of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and "counter-measures"?

Press Conference Announcing Pope Francis' Measures

Large archdioceses such as Buenos Aires and Montevideo have less than 30 seminarians. "That explains why the development in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este progressive parts of the church interfere," said Messa in Latino.

Bishop Complained to Archbishop of Asuncion About Aberrosexuality

The immediate occasion in which the visitation takes place right now, is likely to be a speech by Bishop Livieres which he gave in early June at the March for Life in his city. In it, he lamented with harsh words that the incumbent Archbishop of Asuncion, his Metropolitan, Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga has still not been removed from his office, despite the "existencia de pruebas concluyentes y coincidentes" [proven and demonstrable existence and coincidence] for his aberrosexuality. Archbishop Cuquejo, belonging to the Redemptorists, was still a Cardinal contender in 2002. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Auxiliary Bishop of Asuncion, first as interim from 1982 to 1889, and then officially appointed as archbishop in 1992. With the election of Pope Benedict XVI. this was withdrawn because of initial suspicions levied against Cuquejo, and a coadjutor was placed at his side in 2006. According to Bishop Livieres there was now no doubt. All Paraguay forms an ecclesiastical province. This attack on the highest representatives of the Catholic church in the country was strongly condemned by the General Secretariat of the Episcopal Conference and it demands an apology from Bishop Livieres. Which he refuses to do.

Not Two Months Later If a Visitation in Ciudad del Este Does Not Take Place in Asuncion

The Apostolic Visitation arranged by Pope Francis is set to take place from the 21-26th in July. One might entertain the hope that the Pope wants to make an accurate picture about why the diocese experienced such a bloom in vocations in order to eventually derive a model for the universal Church. Roman circles are trying to appease and to stress that the Apostolic Visitation is only serving the purpose to learn the diocesan relations and the local reality. A direct connection with the liturgy was not given. In traditional circles of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, however, they are harboring fears. The announcement of the visit has rekindled painful memories of the Vatican action against the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 image: Pagina Catolica / Messa in Latino
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Katholisches...
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