Pope accepts
resignation of U.S. bishop

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of an auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Thomas Gumbleton, a liberal voice in the U.S. church who recently revealed that a priest abused him 60 years ago. The Vatican's brief announcement Thursday said the pope accepted the resignation for reasons of age. Gumbleton turned 76 last week, a year past the normal retirement age for bishops. Gumbleton said in an interview published last month that he was abused in 1945 when he was a ninth-grader at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. He is believed to be the first U.S. bishop to disclose that he was a victim of sexual abuse by clergy. He has spoken out in favor of extending the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests and has said he revealed his own abuse now because he thought it might help other victims. Gumbleton has also written that gay men should be ordained, a stance that puts him at odds with a recent Vatican document that said most gay men should not be admitted to the priesthood. In a 2002 article in the Jesuit magazine America, Gumbleton denounced what he called the scapegoating of gay priests for the clergy sex abuse crisis battering the U.S. church and said many gay priests he knew were carrying out their vocations admirably, often offering a "depth of compassion not always shared in a comparable way by heterosexual priests." Gumbleton also writes a regular column for the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newsweekly. (AP)