This morning, the Scranton Times Website had an article indicating that Bishop Joseph Martino was going to resign his position as Bishop of Scranton early next week.
Still no information from the Chancery or Bill “the mouthpiece” Genello on the reasons for the “Bully of Wyoming Avenue’s” abrupt departure. The Bishop has already started moving his personal belongings to the Fatima Renewal Center in Dalton, Pennsylvania.
Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia will guide the direction of the Diocese until a new bishop is appointed by the Vatican to fill the vacancy left by Martino’s impending resignation.
Why is he resigning? We impatiently wait for the news. The longer the diocese waits to explain all this, the less credible they will be. Of course, to many of us, the Diocese of Scranton is not very credible to begin with.
With a change in leadership will there be a change in the diocese’s policy of denying, lying and deceiving parishioner? Will there be a house cleaning of all those that hid pedophiles in the diocese for years? Will the new Bishop try to fix the damage caused by Martino, Timlin and others before? I would like to see the new Bishop address the problems head on and honestly. I just don’t think that the Vatican is capable of appointing an honest man of god to the job.
More information to come as it becomes available.
Off My Knees - A Blog by Michael Baumann 
Driving home today, Friday, Aug 28, I heard on the radio that both Bishop Martino and Bishop Dougherty’s resignations have been accepted by the Pope. The new report said that Bishop Dougherty had put in for a resignation years ago but, only now did Rome accept it.
I just finished checking the Diocese of Scranton Web site and they said that there will be a news conference on Monday, Aug 31 at 10:00 Am to be broadcast live via CTV with a video of the news conference available later.
This is all the info I have at the moment. I hope and pray that the Pope assigns a “Good Shephard” to the Diocese of Scranton.
Michael, know that you are in my prayers.
Tina