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Pope Francis
Photo: Andrew Medichini / dpa
Pope Francis has relieved Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres of pastoral care in the diocese of Arecibo in Puerto Rico.
The Vatican announced this without giving reasons.
He appointed Álvaro Corrada del Rio, Puerto Rican Bishop Emeritus of Mayaguez, as his interim successor.
Fernández Torres' negative attitude towards the corona vaccination is the reason for his dismissal.
The pope had already called for the bishop's resignation in recent months.
According to the Catholic news agency KNA, the 57-year-old American Fernández Torres defended believers who, for reasons of conscience, did not want to comply with the vaccination requirement in the corona pandemic.
He also declined to sign a paper from the Puerto Rican Bishops' Conference that would ban the unvaccinated from participating in church activities.
Fernández Torres had also refused to offer Pope Francis his resignation - he was then deposed.
Francis had recently criticized “strong ideological contradictions” in the global fight against the pandemic.
The pope - himself vaccinated three times - supports the corona vaccination.
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