It's almost like Pope Francis is trying to send a message through his actions. Two days after arresting a defrocked former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic on charges of paying boys for sex, the pope dismissed Paraguayan Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, a controversial conservative prelate accused of giving shelter to a priest wanted for allegedly sexually abusing seminarians in the U.S. and Argentina.
Officially, Pope Francis demoted Livieres due to "serious pastoral reasons and for the greater good of the unity of the Church in Ciudad del Este and the episcopal communion in Paraguay." A Vatican spokesman emphasized the conflict between Livieres, a member of Opus Dei, and his colleagues — among other things, Livieres opened his own theologically conservative seminary and called the Asunción archbishop gay — and said the allegations against accused abuser Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity were "not central, albeit have been debated."
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