Francis Removes a 57-year-old American Bishop Named by Benedict XVI with no Explanation

For a bishop named in 2010, and now very healthy and still only 57, to be removed, there must be a serious reason. Abuse? Cover-up? Embezzling?

Yet the bishop of Arecibo (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, United States), Chicago native Daniel Fernández Torres, was simply removed by Francis today, after being ordered by the Vatican to resign.

You will find several explanations online -- that he was supportive of religious objections to COVID vaccines; that he was "conservative"; that he was not very well liked by his fellow bishops in the island. 

We asked around for information before saying anything -- sometimes, there is a deeper surprise, often unpleasant. But there really does not seem to be one this time. So, unless a very clear answer from the Vatican comes about, this seems a clear case of Franciscan tyrannical injustice. When an abuser, such as his friend Zanchetta, was in trouble, Francis promoted him to protect him; when a bishop does nothing serious, and is simply disliked, he's called upon to resign; and, when he refuses, he's simply removed.

That of course cannot stand. It is not how the Church is constituted. The episcopal office is not a subsidiary of a petty Roman dictator.

*

Below, the bishop's explanation, in English:

Communications Office 

Diocese of Arecibo 

 PRESS RELEASE 

 Statement by Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres 

TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD WHO ARE PILGRIMS IN THE DIOCESE OF ARECIBO 

 When you receive the news of my replacement as bishop at the head of the Diocese of Arecibo, I want you to know that it is not up to me to explain to you a decision that I cannot explain to myself, although I accept it with the patience of Christ for the good of the Church. Nor is it up to you to judge what only God and history will do at the proper time. 

Poor "Heralds of the Gospel", close to Benedict XVI -- they are about to see what Francis' mercy looks like

Mass in the main church of the Heralds of the Gospel, near Sao Paulo, Brazil

The latest "Franciscan Intervention in a Conservative Religious Institute", revealed by Marco Tosatti, in Nuova Bussola:

The Congregation for Religious is to begin an apostolic visit regarding an international association of faithful, the Heralds of the Hospel, the first born in the Third Millenium, and that has had an enormous growth in the past few years. According to confidential internal sources of the Congregation, presided by Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Avis, and whose Secretary is Spanish Franciscan Jose Rodriguez Carballo, the formation of a commission composed by a bishop, a sister, and a canon lawyer to inquire into the Heralds of the Gospel is imminent. The motivations for this initiative are unknown. The founder [of the Heralds] is Monsignor Joao Scogamiglio Cla Dias; and the fact that he is an admirer of Plinio Correa de Oliveira, the great figure of Brazilian Traditional Catholicism, who died in 1995, is already a reason for suspicion for the current Vatican administration. [Source, in Italian]

First, we must make two observations. 

Radicati Editorial: ‘Mercyism’ is moralism

Editorial: Radicati nella fede, July 2016

Newsletter of the Catholic community of

Vocogno, Diocese of Novara, Italy

This ‘mercyism’ which is so much in fashion is nothing other than moralism.

We can all see that it’s very much the fashion today to present the Catholic Church as always forgiving, welcoming and not judging. Those wishing to stay inside the new course of the modernized Church have to be like that. There are many priests in the Church who don’t dare make even one condemnation on sin – unless this condemnation follows the dictates of the dominant secular culture.  They then reprogram themselves as the silent merciful types and so seem to be blessing the most horrendous sins that become civil liberties under this 'mercyism'.

This 'mercyism' is nothing other than gloomy moralism: That 'Catholic deviation' which makes the Church concerned only about morality, almost completely neglecting the truths of the faith.

"God is Father and Mother": as Jubilee of Mercy nears, Francis calls for "revolution of tenderness" and criticizes his own Church.

ZENIT has published an English translation of Pope Francis' interview with "Credere", the official magazine of the Jubilee of Mercy. We are posting the most important sections here; emphases ours. At the end of this article is our commentary on the extreme danger posed to Catholicity by the Pope's assertion that God is "Father and Mother". And then there is the, by now, depressingly familiar line about how the Church "excludes people" and is too legalistic, following a "hard line", "stressing only the moral rules." 

The Italian text of the interview was published on the Vatican website yesterday, December 2, 2015. We repeat: the original of this interview is on the VATICAN WEBSITE. 

Cardinal Sarah: "[New] Rite of Baptism doesn't even mention word 'Faith' - there's a big problem right there." | "Don't deceive people with 'mercy' without repentance."

CARDINAL SARAH: DON’T DECEIVE PEOPLE WITH THE WORD “MERCY” GOD FORGIVES SINS ONLY IF WE REPENT OF THEM

Matteo Matzuzzi

Il Timone

May 30, 2015

“If the Eucharist is considered [simply] a meal we share in and that nobody can be excluded from it, then the sense of Mystery is lost”. So says Cardinal Robert Sarah, the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, in an intervention given at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for the Studies on Marriage and the Family, at his presentation of: “The Family – a work in progress”, a compilation of essays published by Cantagalli, in view of the upcoming Synod in October. A compilation intent on stimulating a discussion which touches on the “hot issues” of homosexuality, sexuality, divorce, in-vitro-fertilization, euthanasia and celibacy. Three volumes make up the collection, two of which are written by professors of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute: “The Eucharist and divorce: does the doctrine change?” by José Granados (who has also been nominated consultant to the Synod of Bishops) and “Different Families: imperfect expressions of the same ideal?” by Stephan Kampowski. The third, “What does Jesus think of the divorced and remarried?” is the work of Luis Sanchez Navarro, Ordinary of the New Testament at San Damaso University in Madrid. Il Foglio had anticipated ample extracts of Professors Granados and Sanchez’s books on April 15th of this year.

Father Ernest (Emmanuel) André and a Lesson for the Contemporary Church

For many years I have been receiving the excellent newsletter of the monks of Saint Joseph de Clairval Abbey. It always focuses on the life of a particular saint, often very obscure ones, and what we can learn from their life and teaching and the times in which they lived. 

The March 2015 letter features a priest of whom I had never heard: Père Ernest André (1826–1903), who later took the name Emmanuel as a Benedictine monk, the originator of the devotion to Our Lady of Holy Hope. 

What I found most striking is how tirelessly Father André worked to catechize his rural flock, which he found in a state of unbelievable ignorance, error, and apathy. Here are his own words, explaining his policy, which was to preach and teach the unadulterated Catholic faith, week in, week out:

Albenga-Imperia Update:Bishop Oliveri stripped of all authority, will remain bishop of the diocese in name only; Coadjutor appointment "begins a Copernican revolution" in the diocese

(For the background, see our October 2014 posts on this matter: Setting the record straight on Albenga-Imperia: A clear case of selective enforcement against a conservative bishop and Albenga-Imperia: Bp. Oliveri responds to Italian media -Plus: Oliveri-hatred by liberals comes from 1980)

What was predicted by Italian media in October last year, as reported by Rorate at the time, has taken place exactly as foretold: Msgr. Mario Oliveri, 71, the exceptionally Traditionalist-friendly Bishop of Albenga-Imperia, has been stripped of all powers and is now Ordinary of the diocese in name only.

Pope Francis on liturgical reform and Vatican II: no turning back

Avanti! ¡Adelante! Forward! And no going back!

The Pope has once again made his mind on the liturgical reform of the 1960's and Vatican II clear, and not without taking the opportunity to criticize the easiest of targets: the very few who still say the rosary at Mass (by the way, not a problem - cf. Mediator Dei, 181-184). He could not resist doing so at his homily on March 7 at the Ognissanti parish in Rome where he commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first Italian Mass of Paul VI:

The liturgy is not something strange, there, distant, and while it is being celebrated I am thinking of many things, or I pray the Rosary. No, no. There is a correspondence between the liturgical celebration, which I then carry into my life; and on this more progress must be made, there is such a long way yet to go.

After the Mass and just before leaving the parish, the Pope addressed the faithful gathered outside the Church, and touched upon the liturgical reform: 

Thank you so much, thank you so much for your hospitality, for the prayer with me in the Mass; and we thank the Lord for what He has done in the Church in these 50 years of liturgical reform. It was in fact a courageous gesture of the Church to draw close to the People of God, so that they could understand well what she does, and this is important for us, to follow the Mass in this way. And we cannot go back; we must always go forward, always forward and whoever goes back is mistaken. We go forward on this way.

Another Bishop "excommunicates" faithful who go to SSPX Masses - now in Argentina!

Scan of the last page of the letter

After the Pope's close friend and secretary of his Papal Council of Nine Cardinals did this days ago, now another Bishop threatens with "excommunication" the faithful who go to masses of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

Where? In Argentina... 

In all honesty, Bishop Sarlinga is considered a "conservative"*, closely linked to Opus Dei (though not a member), and for that reason was widely regarded in the Argentinian Church as someone deeply despised by the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, of whom he was considered an "ideological" adversary. 

His letter is much longer, but with the same references to the Letters of Benedict XVI following the removal of excommunications, so we translate below just the relevant conclusion.

Óscar Domingo Sarlinga

by the Grace of God and of the Apostolic See

Bishop of Zárate-Campana

Diocesan Decree 27/14
...

By way of the present letter, I declare:

Pope's Close Advisor & Member of Council of Nine Cardinals "Excommunicates" Faithful who go to SSPX Masses - Full Text

- Double standards.

- Selective "mercy".

- Good cop, bad cop.

All very Machiavellian. Not Christian at all, though. But it could be "divine", if we are dealing with "the God of Surprises"... 

Original note in Italian below, with full translation: