An outgoing Brazilian bishop's plea to the Vatican for greater transparency in its process for selecting bishops has received the support of at least 10 of his colleagues.
The plea was made by the Rev. Pedro Casaldaliga, the Bishop of San Felix de Araguaia in northwestern Mato Grosso state. At age 77, Casaldaliga has already tendered his resignation but is waiting for his replacement before formally stepping down. The mandatory retirement age for Roman Catholic bishops is 75.
"This request, which is not only mine but also of millions of Catholics around the world who want change, dates back several years," Casaldaliga said by phone.
Earlier this month, six bishops from the northeastern state of Maranhao and four from other states sided with Casaldaliga in letters to Nuncio Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Vatican's ambassador to Brazil, the world's largest predominantly Catholic country.
"The selection of bishops by the Vatican has been a highly secret process for centuries and it hasn't changed one bit during all this time," said Bishop Tomas Balduino, president of the Church-linked Land Pastoral group, which helps landless farmers throughout Brazil.
Balduino said the letters also asked that Casaldaliga's Vatican-appointed replacement should respect the work he has done by not favoring the interests of large landowners to the detriment of landless farmers and Indians, the two groups Casaldaliga has staunchly defended.
Casaldaliga was an outspoken critic of Brazil's 1964-85 military regime and a leading exponent of Liberation Theology, which in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s sought to more actively engage the Roman Catholic Church in Latin American in efforts to combat hunger, poverty and social injustice.