SWITZERLAND
National Catholic Reporter
Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Feb. 11, 2016
Twelve Catholic reform groups have accused the papal nuncio in Switzerland, U.S. Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, of publicly criticizing Pope Francis and have called on the Swiss bishops’ conference to proclaim that the Swiss church is fully committed to the Second Vatican Council.
The reform groups have formed an alliance entitled “Enough is Enough,” and have warned the Swiss bishops that religious peace in Switzerland is endangered. “We are seriously concerned that the nuncio is splitting the Swiss church,” the alliance says in its letter to the bishops.
Alliance member Markus Arnold, the head of the Religious Education Department at Lucerne University, has also written to Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann asking the president “not to allow Gullickson to have a long-term, poisonous effect on the climate in Switzerland. We have enough problems with religious fanaticism as it is. We do not need a nuncio who wants to revive this fanaticism in the Catholic church.” …
Gullickson, 65, is a keen blogger and Twitter-user and is not shy about openly expressing his opinions in the social media. He calls himself an “ultramontanist — and proud to be one” and makes no secret of the fact that he sympathizes with the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. In several tweets, he has praised the elitism of St. Pius X priests.
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