SPAIN
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic News Service | Nov. 13, 2014
BADAJOZ, SPAIN A Spanish archbishop reacted angrily to complaints by local clergy that he wasted money on a “luxurious residence” for himself in one of the country’s most-deprived regions.
Archbishop Santiago Garcia Aracil of Merida-Badajoz said in a brief posting on the archdiocesan website that the work on the residence and the archdiocesan seminary was approved by an advisory council before it began.
“I reject these libelous and defamatory claims,” Garcia wrote.
“I have received abundant expressions of understanding and support from priests, religious and laity throughout the diocese, lamenting that the source of this information is a very small group of priests,” he said.
The posting came in response to a Nov. 2 letter from 50 unnamed clergy in the western Spanish province of Extremadura to the Madrid-based papal nuncio, Archbishop Renzo Fratini. The letter accused Garcia of living an “excessive, ostentatious, scandalous and undesirable” lifestyle.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.