Throwing Over The Bishopric

Conspiracy theories aside, how do you come to be a Catholic Bishop and then go off your rocker?

The most notorious modern example involves the 2001 case of Emmanuel Milingo, archbishop of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia,who married a woman from Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification church and later attempted to ordain married men as bishops.

Now in the headlines is former Bishop Fernando Lugo who resigned his post in 2006 to campaign for president of Paraguay; Lugo admits to fathering a child while still a consecrated Bishop. Local response appears to be largely apathetic.

"Most people will see it as a private affair," Vera said by telephone. "What's important is that he assumed his responsibility."

"People are more lax in their attitudes here. It shouldn't hurt his personal image much."

Besides Lugo, at least two other recent Latin American presidents - Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia, both of Peru - have admitted to fathering children out of wedlock, before they took office.

Reports allege the former Bishop started having sexual relations with the mother when she was as young as 16.

Before Lugo, no priest had been elected president of a Latin American country in living memory, much less one who hewed to the liberation theology of agitating on behalf of the oppressed

Wasn't "liberation theology" widely discredited by Pope John Paul II? 1984 is calling.

I realize that sin is as available to Catholic Bishops as it is to laymen, but being teachers of doctrine usually implies a stricter formation than most. Here, we are not talking about ordinary (or extraordinary) failings of Bishops (a-la sex abuse scandal), but rather the introduction of syncretism in the one case, and the rejection of the office altogether in the other.

In both cases, the persons involved were acting on a desire to be something other than what they were ordained to be. It's not just a job, it's a vocation.

"For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." Romans 11:29

That is totally odd, and to my mind, incomprehensible. Why would you want to be something you're not called to be? And a Bishop at that -- they're not exactly youths. Midlife crisis? Milingo was 72.