A Vatican diplomat said Pope Benedict XVI has achieved a "cleansing
of the episcopate" during his pontificate, saying he has removed from
office two or three bishops a month.
Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, the apostolic nuncio to Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, said: "This Pope has removed two or three
bishops per month throughout the world because either the accounts in
their dioceses were a mess or their discipline was a disaster."
The Spanish-born archbishop, speaking in Madrid, added: "There have
been two or three instances in which they said no, and so the Pope
simply removed them."