Pope removes Puerto Rican bishop from office after he refused to resign

ROME –  On Wednesday, the Vatican announced with no explanation that Pope Francis “had relieved” Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres “from the pastoral care” of the Diocese of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. The bishop is only 57; bishops are required to submit their resignation at 75.

Fernandez Torres, who led the diocese for 12 years, opposed vaccination against COVID-19 and freely signed religious exemptions for people who didn’t want to be vaccinated.

In August, when the Puerto Rican bishops’ conference drafted a pastoral instruction on the moral importance of getting the vaccine, they had to begin the document saying, “We, six of the seven Catholic bishops of Puerto Rico who make up the Puerto Rican episcopal conference, deem it appropriate to express ourselves collegially on a matter that, while it could have been a sign of great hope for humanity, sadly has become controversial: the issue of vaccination against COVID-19.”

Pope Francis has been a vocal advocate of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, calling it an “act of love” and has mandated that all Vatican employees receive it.

Fernandez Torres was also accused of refusing to transfer seminarians from his diocese to the new Interdiocesan Seminary of Puerto Rico, and he was the only prelate not signing several statements made by the bishops’ conference, including a national ban on the Tridentine Mass following Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes, that limits the use of the traditional Latin liturgy. The bishop also voiced his apposition to a bill that would have banned “conversion therapy” for homosexuals.

“If by trying to be faithful to God I am replaced, it is worth it, because as bishop I can be useful to the Church with my own testimony. I remember the words of St. John of Avila: ‘how honored we are to be dishonored by seeking God’s honor’,” the bishop said after his dismissal was made public.

In written declarations, Fernández Torres explained that he was being accused of not being obedient to Pope Francis and not being in communion with the rest of the Puerto Rican bishops. To these allegations he responded: “I feel blessed for suffering persecution and slander.”

The prelate wrote that it was not for him to explain a decision that he doesn’t understand himself, even if he accepts it “with the patience of Christ for the good of the Church.”

Nor is it up to anyone to judge “what only God and history” will judge when the time is right, he said.

Fernández Torres also wrote that he leaves the office with his head high and with inner peace.

“I regret very much that in the Church where mercy is preached so much, in practice some lack a minimum sense of justice,” he wrote, presumably referring to the pope himself, who has made “mercy” a theme of his papacy.

The prelate also said that no process was carried out against him, nor has he been formally accused of any crime. Instead, the Apostolic Delegate informed him verbally, that “Rome was asking for my resignation. A successor of the apostles is now being replaced without even undertaking what would be a due canonical process to remove a parish priest,” he explained.

“I was informed that I had committed no crime, but that I supposedly ‘had not been obedient to the pope nor had I been in sufficient communion with my brother bishops in Puerto Rico’,” he went on to explain.

It was suggested to him that he should present his resignation from the pastoral ministry of the Diocese of Arecibo, so that “I would remain at the service of the Church” to be appointed to something else if he was ever needed.

“An offer that in fact proves my innocence. However, I did not resign because I did not want to become an accomplice of a totally unjust action and that even now, I am reluctant to think that it could happen in our Church,” he said.

After the Vatican’s decision was announced, Fernández Torres – he was removed from office, but not from public ministry – wrote that “this personal experience, on the other hand, has helped me to realize in a new way the serious responsibility that all of us bishops have in the government of the Church, which is apostolic and not pyramidal, synodal and not autocratic.”

“I believe that for quite some time many of us bishops have been watching with concern what is happening in the Church and have been reluctant to believe what is happening,” he said, in a clear reference to many more conservative bishops who do not care for the government style and decisions of Pope Francis.

The bishop is to be temporarily replaced by Bishop Álvaro Corrada del Río, the retired prelate of another Porto Rican diocese.