VATICAN CITY
Washington Post
Pope OKs early retirement of Australian bishop who questioned celibacy, church teaching on sex
By Associated Press, Published: June 8
VATICAN CITY — The pope has agreed to give early retirement to an Australian bishop who ruffled the Vatican’s feathers by calling for a total reform of the Catholic Church, questioning mandatory celibacy for priests along with church teachings on sexuality.
Pope Benedict XVI accepted Monsignor Patrick Power’s resignation on Thursday. Power, an auxiliary bishop in Canberra, asked to retire five years before the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops.
In a 2010 article penned at the height of the renewed clerical sex abuse crisis, Power said the church needs to be totally reformed since it had strayed from the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.