Irish bishop confirms: no advance notice on resignations
August 17, 2010
An Irish bishop has confirmed that he had no advance knowledge of the decision by Pope Benedict XVI not to accept the resignations of two Irish auxiliary bishops.
Bishop Donal McKeown, an auxiliary of the Down and Connor diocese, told the Irish Times that he only learned of the Pope’s decision by reading newspaper reports. “I wasn’t privy to discussions which were clearly going on since Christmas,” he said.
Bishop McKeown declined to comment on the question of whether the Pope’s decision had undercut the authority of Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who had evidently pushed for the resignations of his two auxiliaries, Bishop McKeown said he was "not sure what has been going on this past eight months.”
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Further information:
- Prelate learned of Dublin bishops' fate from press (Irish Times)
- Irish bishops' resignations: were they warranted? were they coerced? (CWN, 8/13)
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