Bishop Fernando Bargallo of the Merlo-Moreno diocese
in Buenos Aires, Argentina who was captured recently hugging a woman in a
bikini on a Mexican beach has had his resignation accepted by the Vatican.
Bishop Fernando Bargallo, a Roman Catholic was
placed in the center of a scandal when an Argentine television station
broadcast his pictures of the bishop embracing the anonymous woman at a holiday
beach resort, the BBC reported. One such image shows the bishop waist-deep in
the water as he is hugging the woman in his swimming trunks.
Catholic Bishops are not supposed to get married,
but instead swear a life of celibacy and give themselves over to God. The issue
has been up for debate by the Vatican in recent times, although Pope Benedict
XVI has remained firm in his position to uphold Roman Catholic Church
teachings.
While information on the woman was not readily
available, the bishop has confessed that he was having “amorous ties” with her.
He had previously tried to excuse himself by saying that she was just a
childhood friend, one that he had known all his life.
In a public statement, he also said that the
photographs were misleading, and could lead people to make the wrong
conclusions about the situation. He went as far as to ask his congregation to
“forgive him for the ambiguity of the pictures,” and insisted again that the
photos should only be viewed in the context of a long-standing friendship.
Later the same week, however, the bishop admitted to
having an inappropriate relationship with the woman and turned in his
resignation, and it has since been accepted by the Vatican
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