Acting with unusual speed, the Vatican has granted a petition for laicization made by Jeremy Leatherby, a former priest of the Sacramento diocese, in August. Leatherby made his petition after Bishop Jaime Soto announced that Leatherby was excommunicated because he refused to recognize the authority of Pope Francis. The bishop had previously suspended Leatherby from ministry because of a charge of sexual misconduct; the investigation of that charge had continued for several years; it will apparently now be dropped.