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	Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Won't Fight His Removal By Patricia Mish Grand Rapids Press January 31, 2007 http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1170258743132190.xml&coll=6 Grand Rapids -- Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton said he does not plan to contest his removal as pastor of an inner-city parish, which he said Tuesday came as a direct result of his advocacy for victims of priest sexual abuse. Gumbleton, in town to speak about nonviolence at Aquinas College, has made national headlines in recent days because of his removal as pastor and an unrelated decision by a Tucson, Ariz., bishop to ask him not to address a Catholic advocacy group on church property. Gumbleton moved out of his modest room at St. Leo Catholic Church in Detroit on Sunday, a week after telling parishioners of his removal. Gumbleton, 77, said Tuesday he submitted a letter of resignation to the pope and to Cardinal Adam Maida in January 2006, with the understanding he would stay on as administrator of St. Leo on a year-to-year basis. That month, Gumbleton testified in favor of extending the statute of limitations for sex-abuse victims in Ohio, opposing the Ohio bishops' conference. Shortly after that, Maida informed Gumbleton "that the Vatican had indicated I was not to stay on," Gumbleton said. This month, Maida named a new administrator. In a letter to parishioners, he said Gumbleton had to be removed because of church rules on retirement. But Gumbleton said Tuesday several retired bishops have continued serving parishes and nothing in canon law prevents it. Parishioners at St. Leo were upset by the move, Gumbleton said. "They don't want it to happen," Gumbleton said. "They have made an appeal. I don't think it has a chance, but they feel they need to do that." This week, the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance paid for half-page ads in the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News opposing his removal. For his part, Gumbleton was philosophical, calling this "another phase of my life." "This is an instance where my choice would be different but I can follow this decision," he said. "I expect it will open up new avenues for God's blessing and God's grace." Gumbleton was greeted warmly in Grand Rapids, where several acquaintances were among those who came to hear the pacifist bishop urge nonviolence. "We live in a time when the nature of war has changed," Gumbleton said. "War is now total war -- not armies fighting armies on the battlefield. It involves all the people." In the first Gulf War, "tens of thousands" of civilians were killed. U.S. forces used ammunition coated with depleted uranium, which leaves a toxic residue. Since the 1991 war, he said, the cancer rate in Iraq has increased by up to 400 percent, and more than half of cancer cases there occur in children younger than 5. The current war in Iraq is claiming thousands of civilian lives, Gumbleton said. "We don't know how to get out of Iraq because we've opened up such a situation of hatred and chaos and violence," he said. "What if ... instead of responding to terrorism with terrorism, we responded with forgiveness and love," Gumbleton said. "When we as individuals and as a nation begin to build peace, we can be assured we will end terrorism."
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