BishopAccountability.org
	Polish Archbishop, Suspended in 2002, Restored to Episcopal Ministry Catholic Culture June 19, 2010 http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=6686 Archbishop Julius Paetz of Poznan stepped down in 2002 after he was accused of making sexual overtures toward seminarians. Archbishop Paetz insisted that the charges were part of a “broadly conceived and systematically conducted” campaign to smear his reputation. But other Polish Church officials pressed for his removal, and he was eventually suspended from episcopal ministry. Now the Congregation for Bishops has lifted that suspension. The Poznan archdiocese confirmed that Archbishop Paetz has been restored to active ministry. He remains in retirement, and at the age of 75 he is unlikely to receive another diocesan assignment. But he may perform ordinations and confirmations. “The archbishop has strived for the ban to be lifted for several years and now wants the Vatican’s decision to be announced in all Poznan churches,” the archdiocese announced. The Vatican move came despite the reported objections of Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the current head of the Poznan archdiocese. Early media reports in Poland said that Archbishop Gadecki had resigned in protest. The Vatican quickly denied those reports. [The Polskie Radio report suggests that the “recent retirement of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops” might have been a factor in the lifting of the suspension. That is inaccurate. Although Cardinal Re submitted his resignation, as required by canon law, when he reached his 75th birthday, the Pope has not yet accepted it, and the Italian cardinal remains at the head of the Congregation for Bishops.]
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