Turmoil at the top as two cardinals lose Vatican posts

Two of the Vatican’s most prominent cardinals lost their jobs within three days of each other during a turbulent week in Rome.

Cardinal George Pell announced he is taking a temporary leave of absence as Pope Francis’ financial tsar so he can return to Australia and defend himself against claims of sexual abuse. He made his decision public last Thursday after police in Victoria State said they were charging him with “historical sexual offences” made by “multiple claimants”. The 76-year-old prelate, who denies the claims, condemned police leaks and character assassinations and said he was looking to his “day in court” so he could clear his name.

The cardinal was planning to fly back to Australia in time for an appearance at Melbourne Magistrates Court on 18 July.

Just two days after Cardinal Pell’s departure, the Vatican announced that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), was being dismissed by the Pope after reaching the end of a single five-year term. The German cardinal, appointed under Benedict XVI, has had an uneasy relationship with Francis, voicing concerns about differing interpretations of the Pope’s family life document, Amoris Laetitia.

Cardinal Müller also took issue with Francis’ sacking of three officials in his department, which also processes the canonical cases of priests accused of sexual abuse. “I’m not able to understand everything,” the cardinal said when asked why Francis had sent them away, adding, “But he’s the Pope.”

Aged 69, the cardinal, a respected theologian, has said he will take early retirement pursuing scholarly and pastoral work in Rome. His successor is expected to be Archbishop Luis Ladaria, 73, a Spanish Jesuit, who is from the same religious order as the Pope. However it emerged on Tuesday that Archbishop Ladaria himself may have to contend with accusations regarding his handling of abuse cases.

The Italian daily La Repubblica claimed that when Ladaria was Secretary at the CDF in 2012, he signed a pro-forma letter with then-Prefect William Levada asking the superiors of Fr Gianni Trotta, a priest in Foggia diocese, to remain silent about Trotta’s abusive behaviour. An internal Vatican legal procedure ended with Trotta being laicised, but he went on to abuse again and was jailed for eight years in 2014. Another Italian news source, Il Post news website, said the letter also stated that if there was a danger to minors the relevant bishop should make that known.

Meanwhile Cardinal Müller admitted that while he was surprised that his term of office was not renewed, he and Pope Francis had not had any differences of opinion. In Mainz for a class reunion on 1 July, Cardinal Müller told the Allgemeine Zeitung that although it had been customary for a CDF Prefect’s five-year term to be renewed, Francis had told him that he wanted to limit the post to five years from now on. “I was the first on whom he put this into practice,” he said.

The Pope had not given any further reasons for dismissing him, Cardinal Müller said. “There were no differences between Pope Francis and myself,” he emphasised, although it was “regrettable” that Francis had dismissed three members of the CDF a few weeks ago. “They were competent people,” the cardinal said.  After concelebrating Mass in Mainz Cathedral on 2 July with the new Bishop of Mainz, Peter Kohlgraf, Cardinal Müller told journalists that he wanted to continue proclaiming the faith “and the truth of the Gospels – and not to tell people what they want to hear”.

Meanwhile The Aust­ralian daily reported on 3 July that Bishop Paul Bird (pictured), of Cardinal Pell’s home diocese of Ballarat, asked the congregation at St Patrick’s Cathedral to pray for “Cardinal Pell, and to pray for victims of crime”.