VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The need to deal with cases and problems managing media pressure with absolute transparency
Marco Tosatti
Rome
Mass-media are understandably saturated with news about the Vatican documents which could have been leaked by a single source, or not. Meanwhile, other less sensational news stories which are, however, more meaningful for the life of the Church, take second stage. But they are in fact not entirely unrelated to the first; both cases represent a situation that Benedict XVI is trying his best to straighten out, modify and correct. We have noticed three in the last week. Here they are.
A Catholic bishop has been demoted to a lay state because he was accused of importing paedo-pornographic material to Canada. Raymond Lahey, Bishop of Antagonish, cannot operate as presbyter, nor preside over religious ceremonies or administer sacraments. In recent years, it is the first time that a punishment of this sort is inflicted upon a prelate at the end of a canonical trial. In January, Lahey was condemned to fifteen months in prison because the Ottawa airport police found hundreds of pornographic photographs of adolescents on his computer. Lahey was released on parole at the end of the trial.
On another continent, the head of the Episcopal Conference was removed and replaced. It is the Central African Republic, where, on 14 May, Benedict XVI appointed new bishops. Three years after the inquiry that in May 2009 caused the early resignations of 54-year-old archbishop Paulin Pomodino of Bangui and of Bishop François-Xavier Yombandje, who retired at the age of 52. An inquiry lead by the then archbishop, now cardinal, Robert Sarah found that Pomodino adopted “a moral attitude not always in conformity with his commitment to follow Christ in chastity, poverty and obedience.” The inquiry also uncovered the fact that many among the local clergy had children. Last 14 May Benedict XVI appointed 45-year-old Fr. Dieudonné Nzapalainga as archbishop of Bangui. Up to then, the clergyman had worked as an apostolic Administrator, and 42-year-old Fr. Nestor-Désiré Nongo-Aziagbia, Father Superior of the Society of African Missions in Strasburg, France, as bishop of Bossangoa.
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