The attacker also broke a chair and was suspended. A group of priests from the south of the province had asked for the monsignor's resignation.
A priest attacked the bishop of San Rafael Eduardo María Taussig with fist blows. The attack took place this Monday morning, when the religious were holding a meeting in the Bishopric of that town in the south of the province of Mendoza.
As detailed by the Bishopric of San Rafael in a statement, Father Camilo Dib, vicar of the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Parish in the city of Malargüe, “violently attacked” the Bishop. Then, “the seat on which the monsignor was sitting continued to break.” For this attack, the priest “was suspended and prohibited from all use of his priestly ministry,” the official text added.
“There was no fight, it was one person who attacked another,” the spokesperson for the Bishopric of San Rafael, José, clarified to TN Álvarez, alluding to the fact that the bishop did not respond to the priest's attack.
Álvarez confirmed that Taussig “received a couple of hits.” A photo shows him with some bruises on his face. However, the spokesperson clarified that “it was something very minimal,” implying that he did not have to be treated by medical personnel.
Asked about the reason that led Dib to explode in this way, Álvarez pointed out that “the psychological or moral freedom reasons will have to be explained later.” But he stressed that what he did “was a very serious crime.”
The objective of the meeting was to offer the priest the opportunity to make a statement about his participation in an escrache that took place in Malargüe last month, during a protest against the closure of the Santa María Madre de Dios Seminary, the Bishopric reported.
“He was called because on November 21 there was a demonstration against the bishop by a group of faithful and he was in the middle of it. It was a very violent demonstration against the bishop and he did nothing to stop it. Therefore, he has to take care of this. For that reason they sanctioned him but they also gave him the opportunity to make his defense,” explained the spokesperson for the Bishopric of San Rafael.
According to the portal Diario San Rafael, that escrache took place when Taussig visited this department to perform a mass in the Parroquia del Carmen in tribute to priest Pablo Fuentes. He was received by a group of neighbors with signs calling for his resignation. When he prepared to return to San Rafael, he could not do so in his car because all four tires were flat, so he had to return in another car.
At the time of the incident, the President of the Diocesan Justice Commission Víctor Torres Jordán, and the Chancellor of the Diocese Luis Gutierrez Drisaldi were part of the meeting.
Álvarez explained that “while he was responding positively to the questions, taking responsibility for having done what he did,” Father Dib reacted “wildly.” The spokesperson for the Bishopric of San Rafael added that "first he hit the desk and then he threw a pineapple at the bishop, who managed to defend himself with his hands but when he fell on the chair he broke it." He also said that there was another priest present who tried to restrain him. “It seemed like he calmed down, but he came back again, much angrier. Then, (Taussig) was helped to leave the place” and took refuge in the dining room. Finally, Father Alejandro Casado accompanied the aggressor to the exit and they both left in their vehicle.
“Evidently, his presence was what got him mad,” the spokesperson reflected. Then, he referred to the disproportion of force between Taussig, 66, and his attacker, whom he described as “a well-built man.”
In the document, issued this Tuesday by the Bishopric, it is explained that Canon Law, in its canon 1370, establishes that if a cleric uses physical violence against the bishop, he automatically incurs the censure of suspension. For this reason, Camilo Dib was automatically suspended after the attack, and “he is prohibited from any use of his priestly ministry.”
Regarding whether they considered taking legal action, Álvarez denied it. “As long as it is not necessary to resort to another form, Canon Law is sufficient. He (Dib) has made a vow of obedience and belonging to the Church,” he clarified. In turn, he indicated that he does not know if he is sorry for what he did, but he “hopes so.” “We have to wait for him to react and take charge, we all have our dark day,” he said.
The closure of the seminary occurred amid a dispute over the non-compliance of some priests, who refused to give the host in the hand to the faithful, instead of doing it in the mouth, as indicated by the health protocol due to the coronavirus pandemic. . After that decision, the local Catholic community expressed its confusion over the fate of the seminarians currently studying in San Rafael. At this time, it is unknown where and how they will continue their vocational career next year.
“It was a measure taken in the month of June by the Bishop, who decided to close the Diocesan Seminary for different reasons. A number of people from the diocese did not understand it and a group has reacted violently for that reason,” Álvarez indicated in this regard.
In the protests of recent weeks, demonstrators held signs with legends such as “Monsignor traitor”, “Wolf in sheep's clothing”, “We are pastor orphans”, “No to the closure of the seminary” or “We ask for an apostolic visitor.” Banners with similar messages were hung in front of the Bishopric headquarters in San Rafael.
“It is not something that happened suddenly and that disrupted everything, we waited almost a month to take this measure. So that tempers could cool down and things could be sized up,” Álvarez emphasized about the recent episode. (TN Source)