On October 24, Pope Francis removed Bishop Martin Holley from the Diocese of Memphis without assigning him to a new see. At 63, he’s over a decade shy of retirement age. To remove such a (relatively) young bishop without giving him another assignment is an extreme measure.
Some interpreted the decision in terms of the US Church’s recent crisis. The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher noted that Holley was incardinated in Florida before being made an auxiliary bishop in Washington under Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. “Holley became a bishop thanks to Ted McCarrick, the lavender mafia godfather,” Dreher claimed.
