Pope Strikes Down Traditional Right to Assign Pastors by the Laity in Ischia

Traditional right for the laity to appoint pastors went back to the Middle Ages

Rome (kath.net/KAP) Two communities in Ischia have lost the battle over a traditional say in the assignment of Catholic pastors. According to the local broadcaster Teleischia, Pope Francis suspended a medieval privilege, which allowed the municipal councils of Forio and Casamicciola, before the appointment of a new pastor to submit to the bishop a binding tripartite list.

According to the report, Ischia’s Bishop Pietro Lagnese had declared in April the 700-year-old patronage of citizens invalid. Previously, the priests of the island diocese were almost universally opposed to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). According to the communities, said  to the broadcaster, their legal support was rejected,  the case was sent to the Roman Congregation of  Clergy and finally with Francis; the latter declared the Lagnese’s decree binding.

Against the decision of the pope, no appeal to a higher authority is possible, "except directly from the Almighty," said Teleischia. According to the broadcaster, the relationship between the political community of Casamicciola and the spiritual shepherd Lagnese was not untroubled even before the recent conflict.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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