The New York Times reported yesterday that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, has stepped down from his role. Archbishop Chaput has long been known as a traditionalist in the Catholic Church, and represented one of the many critics of Pope Francis in the US. The Argentine Pope announced this week that he had accepted the resignation and would take the opportunity to promote one of his backers in Philadelphia.
Bishop Nelson J. Perez of Cleveland, a Cuban-American born in Miami, will now take up the role as Pope Francis aims to promote his ideological outlook.
Archbishop Chaput became a key figure in the traditionalist half of the Church, supporting the denial of communion to Catholic politicians who back abortion rights and opposing legalisation in support of gay marriage.
Anti-Francis figures have launched numerous offensives on both his policy and his character, with one group of traditionalists even penning a book titled “The Dictator Pope”.
Henry J.A. Sire was the author of the damning text, but he initially published the text under the pseudonym – Marcantonio Colonna.
The book is written in the style of a biography, and compares many of his statements to famous Argentine President Juan Peron, a populist and dictatorial figure in the Forties and Fifties.
Drawing support from numerous conservative and traditionalist-leaning lay publications, the Catholic Herald stated that it included “insight” but also “hearsay”.
And now, another anti-Francis text has made headlines after an essay Benedict contributed to appeared to be critical of the current Pope’s policy.
Benedict requested his name be taken off a book just one day before it was due to be published.
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His critics took opposition to his proposed policy of allowing married men to become bishops in the Amazon.
It read: “We respectfully ask Pope Francis to repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins and of all the public offences that he has committed against God and the true religion, and to make reparation for these offences.”