Friday, May 17, 2013

Petition to reinstate archbishop

http://spectator.sme.sk/img/articles/201207/big/46903.jpg
Some 15,000 Slovak Catholics have signed an internet petition backing the former Archbishop of Trnava, Robert Bezak who was removed from his post by Vatican last July.

In a petition they call on the new Pope to review the case. "Your Holiness, Francis, we have a suspicion that the Archbishop Robert Bezak was wrongly accused by the influential people in the Church and later depose," it said.

Bezak, a 53-year-old Redemptorist, had served as archbishop of Trnava since 2009. He made organisational changes in the Trnava archdiocese and complained of difficulties in accounting for missing funds from the period of his predecessor, Archbishop Jan Sokol.

Last year Slovakian civil prosecutors announced they were opening an investigation into charges of misappropriation under Archbishop Sokol.
 

In a surprise move, however, Pope Benedict XVI removed Archbishop Bezak from the pastoral care of his archdiocese last July.