DETROIT (MI)
National
By DENNIS CODAY
A year late and under some pressure from the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit has submitted his resignation “from the office of auxiliary bishop to Cardinal [Adam] Maida.”
Gumbleton turned 75 in January 2005 and should have submitted a letter of resignation at that time. But he didn’t.
Instead he wrote the Congregation for Bishops asking that he be allowed to serve as long as he was healthy. The congregation deemed the request unacceptable, and on Jan. 21, after a year of correspondence with the congregation, Gumbleton submitted his resignation. ...
Gumbleton made headlines last month when he lobbied Ohio legislators to extend statute of limitations provisions for cases of sexual abuse of minors, legislation opposed by the Ohio Catholic bishops’ conference. Several other state bishops’ conferences, including Michigan’s, oppose similar legislation in their states.
While in Ohio, Gumbleton revealed that as a teenage seminarian, he was abused by a priest.
He has said his resignation is not related to either his revelation or his support for the statute of limitations legislation.