Vatican Replaces Puerto Rico Bishop Who Alleges Persecution

Fernández said that a person he did not identify suggested that if he resigned, he would remain at the service of the Catholic Church if they needed him for anything. He declined.

“I did not resign because I did not want to become an accomplice in a completely unjust action,” he wrote, adding: “I express my communion in the Catholic faith, with the Pope and my brothers in the episcopate, despite my perplexity at an incomprehensible arbitrariness.”

Fernández had served as bishop for nearly 12 years. The Vatican said it had appointed an apostolic administrator from the same diocese, Monsignor Álvaro Corrada del Río, retired bishop of Mayaguez, to replace Fernández.