BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican Observers Attempt to Shed Light on Resignations By Paddy Agnew Irish Times August 13 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0813/1224276715139.html THE DECISION not to accept the resignations of Dublin auxiliary bishops Ray Field and Eamonn Walsh, made public this week, has continued to provoke comment among Vatican observers. One senior commentator suggested yesterday that the two auxiliaries had sent a dossier to the Congregation of Bishops prompting the Vatican to reconsider. Writing in his blog, Andrea Tornelli, Vatican correspondent of Milan daily Il Giornale , offered his explanation of the rejection of the resignations. Having proffered their resignations to Pope Benedict XVI last Christmas Eve in the wake of the Murphy report, he suggests, Bishops Walsh and Field later contacted (or were contacted by) the Holy See to explain that, while they had offered to resign in a spirit of healing and reconciliation, they themselves felt that they had done nothing wrong. Vatican insiders suggest that senior figures in the Holy See may have understood this action to be, if not a withdrawal of their resignations, certainly a good reason to reject them, and advised Pope Benedict accordingly. Vatican observers point out that the decision not to accept the original resignations is highly unusual and can only be explained by the fact that there was communication between the two bishops and the Holy See after their dramatic Christmas Eve announcement. Mr Tornelli argues the decision is all the more difficult to understand given that the resignations of both Bishops Donal Murray and Jim Moriarty, also named in the Murphy Report, were accepted. He suggests that, not for the first time, the Vatican has mismanaged a news issue very badly, by opting to offer no public explanation for the apparent diversity of treatment for the various bishops. Most commentators argue that, while the decision to reject the resignations looks like a snub to Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, the Holy See has partly counterbalanced the pope’s decision by insisting that the role of the two auxiliaries in the Archdiocese be “re-dimensioned”. For the time being, however, no one is quite sure just what this “re-dimensioning” or reviewing of their responsibilities means precisely. The Vatican Press Office has issued no comment on the matter, since it is routine practice to comment, if at all, only on resignations that have been accepted.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.