On Saturday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Eduardo María Taussig, Bishop of San Rafael.
The February 5 decision came a year and a half after the Vatican closed the San Rafael diocesan seminary. Bishop Taussig is 67 years old this year.
Bishop Carlos María Domínguez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Juan de Cuyo, is currently appointed Apostolic Administrator of San Rafael.
In an interview published by the diocesan weekly De Buena Fe, the spokesman for the Diocese of San Rafael, Father José Antonio Alvarez, said that “the public knows that the diocese has been going through a very difficult crisis. serious, even leading to the closure of the local seminary”.
“The situation has been resolved satisfactorily, but not completely. Bishop Taussig, from the very first moment, placed his office under the authority of the Pope.”
“Over the course of the past two years, he has reiterated it a few times and finally confirmed it in writing in the last months of 2021. From that point, the Holy Father began to prepare for the transition. and today he finally conveyed what we know.”
Bishop Taussig was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires in 1982, and he was appointed Bishop of San Rafael in 2004.
Since mid-2020, tensions have been running high between the Diocese of San Rafael and a substantial group of the faithful.
In June 2020, when announcing the cessation of public worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bishop Taussig commanded that Communion can only be received standing and held in the hand, not kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue. .
A large number of priests in San Rafael have failed to comply with the directives regarding the distribution of Communion in the hand, among them are many former seminarian seminarians, believed by some to be behind the priests' reluctance comply with the request to receive Communion in hand.
Besides the trouble this causes between parishioners and the priests of the diocese, Bishop Taussig's decision has also caused tension within the diocese's seminary.
Bishop San Rafael announced July 27, 2020 by order of the Congregation for the Clergy that the Seminary of Saint Mary Mother of God will be closed at the end of the year and the seminarians will be transferred to other seminaries of the diocese.
The bishop said “the decision to close the seminary disappointed me deeply and surprised me, but it was a direct instruction from the Holy See.”
Bishop Taussig explained that the Congregation for the Clergy informed him that due to the trouble the seminary has had to replace its principal with seven people in the past 15 years – it does not seem worthwhile to continue opening the seminary.”
San Rafael Seminary is one of the most successful in Argentina and throughout Latin America, with a large number of vocations.
After the audience with Pope Francis, in late October 2020, Bishop Taussig said that the Vatican's decision to close the seminary was "indisputable".
Several parishioners in the diocese organized various protests and asked people to pray the Rosary in front of diocesan offices. Many convoys of cars passed through the streets of cities in the Argentine diocese to protest the decision.
In December 2021, just over a year after the closure of Saint Mary Mother of God Seminary, the diocese announced the reallocation of seminarians who had been trained there, and said that a group of 12 had was transferred to “four seminaries in various dioceses in Argentina, without disclosing how many decided to give up priestly formation after controversy.