Pope Francis and the 'Subsidiarity’ of the Rule of Law

There is no set process or criteria for disciplining or dismissing a bishop, one of the Vatican’s most senior canon lawyers said Tuesday, while insisting that decentralization remains central to the Church’s ecclesiology. Speaking to press Nov. 28, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, also said that the post-conciliar “great decentralization” of the Church remained intact and aligned with the synod on synodality. Bishop Arrieta cited Vatican II and canon law, as he fielded questions on recent papal disciplinary action against an American bishop, as well as Vatican attempts to reign in the German synodal way.