San Diego Bishop Maher’s Resignation Accepted

Pope John Paul II on Tuesday accepted the resignation of ailing Bishop Leo T. Maher, who gained nationwide attention when he refused Communion to a political candidate because of her views on abortion, as head of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

As expected, Bishop Robert H. Brom became the fourth leader of the diocese.

It was also announced Tuesday that the Pope has accepted the resignation of the nation’s highest-ranking black Roman Catholic clergyman, Archbishop Eugene A. Marino of Atlanta, for personal reasons and ill health.

Maher, 75, who is suffering from a malignant brain tumor, reached the church’s mandatory retirement age July 1 and had been waiting for the Pope to accept his resignation. Brom, 51, was appointed successor to the job in April, 1989.

Maher last year became the first Roman Catholic clergyman to denounce a politician for favoring abortion rights.

In a two-page letter, he called state Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego), a Catholic, “an advocate of this most heinous crime” and told her that the ban would remain until she recanted her position.

At a press conference Tuesday morning, reporters asked Brom about Maher’s Communion ban on Killea, which was imposed after she broadcast commercials outlining her abortion-rights stand during her political campaign in November.

Brom did not address directly whether Maher’s ban is still in effect.

Killea said she will not defy the San Diego bishop in his own diocese. “I would assume the ban would continue unless something is done about it,” she said.

Killea narrowly defeated Assemblywoman Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon) in a Dec. 5 special Senate election. Bentley is adamantly an abortion foe.

Maher, bishop for almost 21 years, was ordained a priest in 1943.

Brom was previously bishop of the Diocese of Duluth, Minn. The San Diego diocese includes more than 450,000 registered Catholics in San Diego and Imperial counties.

In Atlanta, a resignation letter released Tuesday by Marino, 56, said he needed “an extended period of spiritual renewal, psychological therapy and medical supervision.” James P. Lyke, auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, will begin serving next month as apostolic administrator for the archdiocese. Lyke, 51, also is black.

Marino had relinquished his duties last May and had been undergoing treatment in New York for physical ailments and psychological stress.

About 12 years ago, Marino was treated for alcoholism and more recently had suffered high blood pressure, chest, neck and back pains.

Oppel reported from San Diego and May reported from Atlanta.