Vatican City, Mar 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Diocese of Magdeburg (Germany) presented by Bishop Leopold Nowak.
In a break from normal protocol, Nowak’s resignation was accepted the very same day he turned 75.
Nowak was one of the three only bishops who opposed the Vatican’s request to disassociate the German episcopate from a complex German legal process that ends up with the Church providing a document that allows a woman to have an abortion.