Pope punishes Bishop by making him an Archbishop

INDIANAPOLIS –  A high-ranking Holy See official who tried to resolve tense relations between the Vatican and U.S nuns was transferred Thursday to a Midwestern archdiocese of fewer than 230,000 parishioners.

The newly appointed Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin said he didn’t know if the move was related to his efforts to reconcile the heads of the Roman Catholic Church with nuns who some theological conservatives complained had become too secular and political.

“No one told me it was tied to the investigation,” Tobin, a 60-year-old American Redemptorist priest, said at a news conference in Indianapolis. He succeeds Archbishop Daniel Buechlein who retired last year.

Yeah that really sounds like the motive that Pope Benedict XVI would have.  If you don’t toe the line exactly you will be made and Archbishop of  228,000 Catholics.  If he really wanted to punish him even more severely he might even make him a Cardinal.

The article goes on to quote two priests that have never been quoted in a news article —  Rev. Thomas Reese, Rev. James Martin S.J. Actually I mean pretty much quoted in any news article on the Church seeking negative spin.

Rev. Thomas Reese is quoted as saying  “He said part of his job was to explain Women Religious to the Vatican.”  When did he say this? Google seems to have amnesia on him ever being quoted of him saying anything so condescending. I call BS on this. To be fair though it is not beyond the pale  that he might have said it.  He certainly was somewhat critical of the investigation of the LCWR . I have to say if he was accurately quoted in context that “No one told me it was tied to the investigation” that this a rather odd reply.  Mainly though I call BS that this was some petty reprisal from the Pope.

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