Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte, N.C., arrives with U.S. bishops from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to concelebrate Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome Feb. 10, 2020. The bishops were making their “ad limina” visits to report on the status of their dioceses to Pope Francis and Vatican officials. (Credit: Stefano Dal Pozzolo/CNS.)
NEW YORK – An embattled priest in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, has taken the unusual step of publicly criticizing his own bishop for recent comments on the priest’s removal from active ministry – a decision the Vatican has already upheld twice.
Father Patrick Hoare said in a Jan. 24 statement that in a recent letter to the faithful from Bishop Peter Jugis, the phrasing regarding allegations of inappropriate behavior towards minors was “inaccurate and implies an objective finding of fact that has not occurred.”
“It is very unusual for a priest to publicly question the statement of his bishop, and for three years, I have been silent, but I feel I must respond because this letter has caused real and unjust harm to my reputation,” Hoare said, claiming that he can’t go into much detail because he has a third appeal pending with the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court.
Jugis’ Jan. 21 letter to the faithful stated that Hoare’s first appeal to the Vatican was denied in July 2021, with the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Clergy writing in a decree that the diocese had “sufficiently demonstrated grave and lasting cause for the removal” of Hoare from ministry.
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