In June at least 69 of 167 diocesan priests together with some lay groups, called on Leteng to resign.

But, in recent weeks, some priests on Flores Island have been coming to the defence of the bishop.

Father John Mustaram, from St. Gregory Parish in Borong, defended Leteng in a statement at a wedding mass that has since gone viral on social media.

He called accusations of misappropriation - and of him having an affair - slander and warned other priests and lay Catholics not to speak against the bishop.

Another priest reportedly backed the bishop by accusing local media of playing up the row.

On a local news website, Floresa.co, a priest calling himself Father Rustam Effendy said the publicity was a plot by non-Catholics to destroy the church.

Representatives of the priests, accompanied by a bishops' conference official met Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi on June 16, seeking his help for a complete overhaul and transparency from Leteng regarding how things are run in the diocese.

A bishops' conference source told ucanews.com previously that the Vatican would make a decision on the matter after the nuncio met Leteng on July 7.

However, the source said on July 19, that the Vatican has yet to make a decision and that the complaint against the bishop had to go through proper channels.

Leteng has not responded to several requests for comment.

Source

• UCANEWS.COM
• Vatican Radio
• Image: matakotolik

At least 69 priests from Ruteng Diocese submitted letters of resignation this week and demanded that Bishop Hubertus Leteng heed their calls for a complete overhaul of how the diocese is run.

According to reports, the priests say the bishop borrowed over $94,000 from the Indonesian Bishop's Conference and an additional $30,000 from his own diocese.

He did not provide a report for these sums, and it remains unclear how the money was spent.

Priests accuse him of giving the money to a woman with whom they allege he was having an affair.

Leteng, has dismissed the allegations, calling them "slanderous."

He says the money was given to a young man to attend flight school so he could become a commercial pilot. He added that the details were none of the priest's business.

Last year 112 of 167 diocesan priests signed a letter of no confidence in the bishop, according to the priest who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An appeal has been made to the the Vatican to intervene and resolve the dispute.

Representatives of the priests, accompanied by a bishops' conference official, met Archbishop Antonio Filipazzi, the outgoing apostolic nuncio in Indonesia June 16.

Father Alfonsius Segar, one of the priests who met with the nuncio, told ucanews.com that Archbishop Filipazzi has promised to help resolve the dispute.

"He will immediately take this issue up with the Vatican," Father Segar said.

Source

• ucannews.com
• catholic.org
• catholicherald.co.uk
• Image: directory.ucannews.com

I sigh. When I turn to my daily newspapers, I sigh further, at the stereotyping, the false assumptions, the hostility in some quarters, the focus upon protocol rather than substance, the obsession with fiscal laxities at the Vatican rather than the proclaimed mission of Christ. Much of this criticism is boringly predictable; I may be wrong, but I suspect it might be hard to find a month, for example, when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd does not launch an attack upon the papacy and the Catholic Church. And when the College of Cardinals announces the successor to Benedict, there will be fervid speculation about the new pope's attitude toward divorce, abortion, the Jews, secularism in Italy, and so on.

That is one view of the Catholic Church, the church of hierarchy, tradition, formalism, its bursts of reform soon restrained by a return to conservatism. It is the church so familiar to the minds of secularists, pagans and anti-Catholics everywhere. It is the church of the 19th-century popes. It is the church of infallibility, incense, candles, and of Latin masses. Pushing it further, it is the church of financial corruption and sexual abuse. It is the church of stereotype, which is not wise.

In the early 1790s, as Europe reeled under the shock of the French Revolution, the great English politician and philosopher Edmund Burke warned against condemning an entire nation, a France of about 30 million souls, for the troubles and wars. Shouldn't we be wary of condemning a church of roughly 1 billion believers? Continue reading

Sources

• Paul Kennedy in The New York Times
• Image: Stuff

Paul Kennedy is Dilworth Professor of History and director of International Security Studies at Yale University.