By Julie Kent
Cleveland Leader
May 2, 2011
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/16626
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Pope Benedict XVI has fired an outspoken Australian bishop that called on the Church to ordain women and married men. In a statement issued on Monday, the Vatican said that the pope had "removed from pastoral care" Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, west of Brisbane.
It's a stronger move than typical of the Vatican, which general asks church leaders to resign, and then later announces that the pope has accepted their resignations.
According to Australian media, Morris recently published an open letter in which he said he was being removed for a 2006 message to the faithful in which he argued that a shortage of priests should force the church to consider ordaining both married men and women. He said that the letter prompted some complaints to Rome, which then led to a Vatican investigation. The Australian newspaper says that Morris indicated that he had never written a letter of resignation.
Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, has vehemently upheld the Catholic teaching that only celibate men can be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. However, married men in the Latin rite church who are loyal to the church can become priests. The Vatican has also welcomed married Anglican priests in recent years who have converted Roman Catholicism.
Morris has been a priest since 1969 and the Toowoomba bishop for 18 years.
A Congolese bishop was also "removed from pastoral care" about a month ago. African media reports said that Jean-Claude Makaya Loemba was dismissed for management problems in his diocese.
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