Pope Francis on Saturday dismissed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of his fiercest critics among U.S. Roman Catholic conservatives, after he refused to step down following a Vatican investigation.
He is the Cardinal of the archdiocese of Cologne in Germany. He made a seriously bad figure with regards to investigations intosexual abuse by priests and is a serious opponent of any change in the church.
There is an old contract between the church and the state in Germany. One provision in this contract is that priests in the archdiocese are only to be trained at Bonn University. He considered this “to worldly” and tried to set up a more conservative seminary from a number of funds designed for totally other purposes and in breach with this old contract that might put the whole role of the catholic church in German society into turmoil.
Many lay people but also members of the church want him gone ASAP. People turn their backs to him in church when he preaches. And thousands of people leave the catholic church primarily because of him.
He is the Cardinal of the archdiocese of Cologne in Germany. He made a seriously bad figure with regards to investigations intosexual abuse by priests and is a serious opponent of any change in the church.
There is an old contract between the church and the state in Germany. One provision in this contract is that priests in the archdiocese are only to be trained at Bonn University. He considered this “to worldly” and tried to set up a more conservative seminary from a number of funds designed for totally other purposes and in breach with this old contract that might put the whole role of the catholic church in German society into turmoil.
Many lay people but also members of the church want him gone ASAP. People turn their backs to him in church when he preaches. And thousands of people leave the catholic church primarily because of him.