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An Italian prelate, who was at the center of a controversy in November 2015 for allegedly expressing a desire to see Pope Francis die, resigned on Wednesday and was replaced by a cleric known for his advocacy on behalf of migrants and refugees.
Archbishop Luigi Negri of Cremona, who turned 75 last November, marking the age at which bishops are required to submit their resignations to the pope, had been named to head the northern Italian archdiocese, located in Lombardy, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
In November 2015, a national controversy erupted when the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a front-page story based on what it described as eyewitness accounts of a conversation Negri was alleged to have had one month before aboard a train to Rome with his priest-secretary.
In it, the 74-year-old prelate supposedly said he hoped the Madonna would work a miracle and cause Pope Francis to die, referring to the example of Pope John Paul I, who died after just 33 days. Allegedly, Negri also had some harsh things to say about bishops’ appointments by Francis in the Italian dioceses of Bologna and Palermo. (In both cases, the pontiff tapped men seen as center-left to replace figures perceived as more conservative.)
cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/02/15/italian-prelate-supposedly-wanted-pope-francis-dead-resigns/
Archbishop Luigi Negri of Cremona, who turned 75 last November, marking the age at which bishops are required to submit their resignations to the pope, had been named to head the northern Italian archdiocese, located in Lombardy, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
In November 2015, a national controversy erupted when the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano ran a front-page story based on what it described as eyewitness accounts of a conversation Negri was alleged to have had one month before aboard a train to Rome with his priest-secretary.
In it, the 74-year-old prelate supposedly said he hoped the Madonna would work a miracle and cause Pope Francis to die, referring to the example of Pope John Paul I, who died after just 33 days. Allegedly, Negri also had some harsh things to say about bishops’ appointments by Francis in the Italian dioceses of Bologna and Palermo. (In both cases, the pontiff tapped men seen as center-left to replace figures perceived as more conservative.)
cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/02/15/italian-prelate-supposedly-wanted-pope-francis-dead-resigns/