It is no longer “exceptional” that some priests turn down an appointment as bishop, says the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet told the Catholic News Service that this does happen nowadays, but the number of priests who do so is not high.
Priests decline an appointment as bishop, which is offered by the Pope, for a number of reasons, the cardinal said.
One priest told the Congregation for Bishops that he had cancer and had not told others of his illness.
“It was a sign of responsibility not to accept the appointment,” Cardinal Ouellet said.
Others decline because of something in their past or because they think they cannot handle the responsibility, he said.
In the latter case, he said, “normally we insist” because often people are not the best judges of their own abilities.
But when a person makes “a decision in conscience”, the Vatican respects that.
Cardinal Ouellet also confirmed that, since at least 2010, the confidential questionnaire sent to local bishops and clergy asking about a potential candidate includes a question about whether that person was ever was in a position of having to handle an accusation of clerical sexual abuse made against another priest or church worker.
“We have to be able to verify that he is able to handle these cases well, that is to say, he does not have a mentality of covering them up or not reporting them or not taking them seriously,” the cardinal said.
Asked about the types of potential bishops the Pope desires, Cardinal Ouellet said the Pope “has insisted on the pastoral quality of the bishops”.
“That’s very clear. It does not mean that they do not have to be masters of the faith because a bishops is, first and foremost, the first teacher of the faith in his diocese.
“But the capacity to relate to people, to establish dialogue, to start from the point where people are – this is a quality that is also requested,” the cardinal said.
Sources