Vatican City, Feb 4, 2011 / 13:43 pm
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Franc Kramberger of Maribor, Slovenia under circumstances that have not yet been clarified. News reports and an archdiocesan official suggest that bad investments have left the Church in disastrous debt.
The 74-year old Archbishop Kramberger's resignation was accepted by the Pope Feb. 3 even though he was still a year shy of retirement age. Under Church law bishops resign before reaching their 75th birthdays in cases of health problems or other grave causes that impede him from carrying out the task.
For Archbishop Kramberger, the serious cause appears to be the enormous debt incurred by the archdiocese during his time there.
Archdiocesan chief financial officer, Lojze Cvikl, told STA news agency that the Maribor Archdiocese has a debt of more than $23 million.