At the end of last spring, an article from www.chiesa focused on the
many cases of bishops asked to resign by the Vatican because they were
seen as no longer capable of fulfilling their office, or, in the case of
refusal to resign, "relieved" of their posts personally by the pope:
> Vatican Diary / The "who's who" of the deposed bishops
A few days after the publication of this article, another case of this kind emerged in Slovakia.
The news is in a terse statement from the Vatican dated July 2:
"Il papa ha sollevato dalla cura pastorale dell’arcidiocesi di Trnava (Slovacchia) S.E. Mons. Róbert Bezák, C.SS.R.".
The
deposed archbishop, 52 years old, a Redemptorist, has left his post and
has also been obliged to reside outside of the archdiocese. But his
case appears to be far from closed. It is invading the Slovakian media
and dividing public opinion, Catholic and not. Leading intellectuals and
artists have closed ranks in defense of this "bishop with a human
face," according to them unjustly driven out for having wanted to expose
the malfeasance of his predecessor Jan Sokol, who retired in 2009 after
reaching the age limit.
In effect, Archbishop Sokol, in addition
to being suspected – like many others – of collaborating with the
secret service of the previous communist regime, had been hit by a
crescendo of accusations concerning the administration of the assets of
the archdiocese, which he had put under his name and which only he could
control.
These were significant sums, of several million euro,
coming from the restitution to the Church of property that had
previously been confiscated by the communist regime, from donations from
wealthy Slovaks residing in the United States or other countries, and
from returns on financial investments abroad.
The attorney
general of the Slovakian state has opened a case for fiscal fraud. And
as soon as he was appointed archbishop, Bezák himself lashed out noisily
against his predecessor's management, coming to the point of testifying
against him in 2010 in a lawsuit between Sokol and the magazine
"Tyzden," which had published confidential information about the
administration of the archdiocese.
Bezák informed the nunciature
in Slovakia and the Vatican secretariat of state about what he believed
to be Sokol's malfeasance. And he also requested an apostolic visitation
of the archdiocese.
But he obtained the opposite of what he was expecting.
The
nuncio in Bratislava, Mario Giordana, conducted the investigation of
the case. But he concluded that Archbishop Sokol had not personally
appropriated anything. If anything, he had acted as many other
archbishops of the former Soviet empire, who, not trusting the new
leadership classes and fearing new confiscations and harassment, put
under their own names the assets of the diocese and donations from
abroad, in accounts "protected" as much as possible, like those of the
Institute for Works of Religion, the Vatican bank. In any case, today
the Vatican authorities no longer see such behavior as justifiable, in a
political context that has been stabilized.
As for the apostolic
visitation, this took place during the latter half of January of 2012.
But instead of being against Sokol, it backfired against Bezák himself.
For administrative infractions, this time his own, but also doctrinal
and disciplinary violations.
The apostolic visitation had been ordered from Rome by the congregation for the clergy headed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza.
The inspector selected was the bishop of Litomerice in the neighboring Czech Republic, Jan Baxant.
In one week, Baxant interviewed all of the bishops of Slovakia, and many other religious and lay witnesses.
According
to the final report of the visitation, Bezák, after firing all of the
administrative personnel of the archdiocese in office with his
predecessor, had entrusted the substantial diocesan portfolio to two
commercial companies, Ninett and Hanalex, created and directed by two
administrator friends of his, Ondrej Studenec and Anna Húst'avová,
already responsible for the slipshod management of the assets of the
neighboring diocese of Banská Bystrica, where Bezák was a pastor before
being promoted as archbishop of Trnava.
The fact is that in a few
months of management, before the relationship with Ninett and Hanalex
was broken off, these two companies accumulated a debt with the
archdiocese of almost 600,000 euro, for loans not repaid and revenue not
deposited. A debt that the Vatican authorities view as "unrecoverable."
But no less grave are the doctrinal and disciplinary failures that the Vatican authorities have detected in Archbishop Bezák.
After
breaking off relations with his own auxiliary bishop and alienating all
of the pastoral management directors inherited from Sokol – vicar
general, chancellor, judicial vicar, treasurer, dean – Archbishop Bezak
is believed to have entrusted "positions of responsibility to unworthy
priests, some of them from other dioceses, in that they are living in
situations of open immorality and violation of discipline." Read:
homosexuality and concubinage.
Not only that. Bezák is thought to
have distinguished himself – still according to the Vatican authorities
– "in blatant lack of observance of liturgical norms, in the support
given to ideas contrary to Catholic doctrine consistently taught by the
sacred magisterium with regard to the indissolubility of marriage,
euthanasia, and the sacrament of Holy Orders, showing little respect for
the Roman pontiff."
Not to mention his "public mockery of clergy
in clerical dress" and "wearing inappropriate secular clothing even on
official occasions like visits to parishes to impart the sacrament of
Confirmation."
Bezák has repeatedly complained that he has not
been informed by the Vatican authorities about the real accusations
brought against him, and that he has not been able to explain his
reasons to the leading authorities of the Roman curia and to the pope.
And because of this, he has refused to resign.
In reality, at the
end of the apostolic visitation in January, the visitor Baxant listened
to him once again, presenting the accusations gathered and asking him
to reply.
On May 3, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the
congregation for bishops, sent him a list of 11 questions concerning
doctrine and discipline. To which Bezák responded in writing, in very
argumentative terms.
Bezák has also had the opportunity to meet with the nuncio in Slovakia on a number of occasions.
Of
course, the Vatican authorities have not made any of this public. Nor
has the Slovakian episcopal conference, unanimously allied against the
deposed archbishop.
And this gives Bezák and his supporters a way
to complain of the violation of the right to defense, to maintain that
the pope has been "misinformed" or even "deceived," and to turn the case
of a single "relieved" bishop into a question of mismanagement of the
universal Church.
Meanwhile, Benedict XVI has appointed as
apostolic administrator of Trnava, pending the designation of the new
archbishop, the auxiliary Jan Orosch.