Rwandan bishop resigns

2010-02-01 09:09

Vatican - A Rwanda bishop has resigned, the Vatican announced, a move an official said was due to "serious financial problems" at his diocese.

The Vatican official said the financial problems had prompted tensions within the diocese and health problems for the bishop, Kizito Bahujimihigo of Kibungo.

The bishop, contacted by The Associated Press, confirmed that he had stepped down but said it was still early for him to go into the details of the reasons behind his resignation.

"What I can tell you at the moment is that I wrote to Rome requesting for resignation and it was granted," Bahujimihigo said on Sunday.

"For the details behind my decision, it is still early," the bishop said. "I can only be in position to do that in maybe two or three weeks."

The Vatican official declined to give details about the extent of the crisis or whether Bahujimihigo himself was personally implicated or whether any legal action was under way.

Bahujimihigo is only 55 - 20 years younger than the normal retirement age for bishops - yet he is now considered a retired bishop, entitled to a pension, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorised to give the reason behind the resignation.

In announcing the resignation on Friday, the Vatican only cited the code of canon law under which Bahujimihigo had stepped down: It's an article that allows a bishop to resign if he is ill or because "some other grave reason" makes him "unsuited for the fulfillment of his office."

Bahujimihigo had been named to the Kibungo post in 2007 and has been a bishop since 1998. Born in Rwamagana in 1954, he was ordained in 1980.

- AP