The following comes from a December Inland Catholic Byte article:
SAN BERNARDINO—Auxiliary Bishop Rutilio del Riego has retired from active ministry after the mandatory letter of resignation he submitted to the Vatican in September was accepted by Pope Francis.
Bishop del Riego made the surprise announcement December 11, before the start of the 8 a.m. Mass at the Diocesan Pastoral Center to celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He simply read the letter from Apostolic Nuncio Carlo Maria Viganó informing him that his resignation had been accepted. Minutes later, as he read the Collect, or opening prayer of the Mass, Bishop del Riego became choked with emotion.
Church law requires that bishops submit a letter of resignation to the Pope when they turn 75 years of age, although it is the Holy Father’s prerogative whether or not to immediately accept it.
Ordained on September 20, 2005 Bishop del Riego is the third Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese but will be the first to retire from the post. Bishop Gerald Barnes was the first and was then elevated to Ordinary of the Diocese; Auxiliary Bishop Dennis O’Neil, the second, passed away in 2003 before reaching the age of retirement.
Among the many highlights of Bishop del Riego’s episcopal ministry were the launching of the Building Intercultural Competencies for Ministers (BICM) program in the Diocese, his leadership of the Justice for Immigrants Campaign in the Diocese and his efforts to raise the civic profile of the Diocese in the greater Riverside area. He was also a charismatic fixture at the annual West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco for many years.
Something is wrong in San Bernardino … as I recall, they have 92 churches and 54 priests … I think new leadership could be a positive thing, if you get the right bishop in there.
A conflicted man—-participates in the Walk for Life once per year but helps Leftist Democrat groups like Mi Familia Vota to register more Democrats in the Hispanic Catholic community so that the pro-abortion agenda will continue.
Is this what we used to call “hypocrisy?”
https://catholiccitizens.org/news/54275/bishop-blesses-pro-abortion-group-diocese-sponsors-pro-abort-pro-homosexual-speaker/
Assuming the truth of Mike’s comments (which I have no reason to doubt), this is but another example of the hierarchy being scolded about not “telling the faithful how to vote”. So long, that is, as bishops and others express grave concern over the morality of voting for candidates which toe the pro-abortion line despite their self-declared Catholic faith. And let me add this: what is so wrong about a bishop or priest reminding voters that voting is a MORAL act. It involves MORAL decisions.
We call our country “a nation of laws, not of men”. So it follows that the laws you will live under depend on the ideologies of the candidates you elect.
In those circumstances, for a Catholic bishop to urge and enable faithful to vote for pro-abortion candidates is a scandal. The bishop did not resign one minute too soon. The better question: why was he ordained a bishop in the first place?