Conservative Bishop replaced with one after the Pope's heart

Pope Francis accepts the resignation of Vaduz Archbishop Haas; Modernist Apostolic Administrator takes over.

After just over six weeks, the Pope accepted the resignation of Vaduz Archbishop Wolfgang Haas. When it comes to his successor, Francis is relying on opposites: the interim administrator will be a bishop who is completely different from the staunchly conservative Haas.

The Pope has accepted the resignation of Vaduz Archbishop Wolfgang Haas. Until a successor is appointed, Feldkirch Bishop Benno Elbs will lead the Liechtenstein archdiocese as apostolic administrator, the Vatican Press Office announced on Wednesday. Haas had offered his resignation to Pope Francis, as required by canon law, as he turned 75 in August. Elbs, born in 1960, has been bishop of the Austrian diocese of Feldkirch since 2013 and, in contrast to Haas, is considered liberal.

In a farewell statement published on the archdiocese's website, Haas thanked everyone who had supported him in his administration. He is fully aware of his "personal insufficiency, indeed of many shortcomings and limitations": "I humbly and trustingly leave the judgment on this to the mercy of the just Eternal Judge. I can say with a clear conscience that I did not consciously want to cause anyone any harm. Maybe sometimes I just didn't realize that this or that word or behavior could have hurt." Nevertheless, he asks for leniency and forgiveness from everyone he might have hurt. Haas announced that he wanted to spend his twilight years “in more monastic seclusion.” He wishes diocesan administrator Elbs “a favorable reception and a good success in his mission.” According to the diocesan administrator, Haas will retire to the monastery at Schellenberg in Vaduz.

Elbs announced on the Feldkirch Diocese website that it was a matter of course for him to fulfill the Pope's wish and accompany the Archdiocese of Vaduz during the transition. “I know from my own history that the time of sedis vacancy, i.e. the time when the episcopal see is not occupied, is often a time of uncertainty and insecurity,” said Elbs.

Born in Vaduz, Haas was Bishop of Chur in Switzerland before the Archdiocese of Vaduz was founded. The separation of the Liechtenstein area from the diocese and the appointment of Haas as its first archbishop was seen as a solution to conflicts between Haas, who was considered to be extremely conservative, and parts of his previous diocese. The archdiocese, established in 1997, was previously the former deanery of Liechtenstein and covers the entire territory of the principality between Austria and Switzerland. Vaduz is directly subordinate to the Holy See and does not belong to any bishops' conference. It is one of the Church's small archdioceses worldwide.

Diocesan committees were ignored in the interim leadership

In August, on the occasion of Haas's 75th birthday, laypeople again called for the archdiocese to be dissolved and incorporated into a Swiss diocese. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, who is responsible for foreign policy at the Vatican, had previously emphasized that the archdiocese would remain in existence even after Haas left the office of diocesan bishop.

When an episcopal chair becomes vacant, the interim leadership of the diocese normally initially passes to the most senior auxiliary bishop until the college of consultors, an advisory body to the bishop, elects a diocesan administrator. The diocesan administrator runs the business of the diocese until a new bishop takes over. By appointing an Apostolic Administrator, the Pope anticipates the decision of the College of Consultors and determines who will lead the diocese during the vacancy of the Sedis.

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Bishop Elbs. The Diocese has gone from glory to desert in a few hours.