Bishop Clark To Talk Retirement
By: WROC-TV
Updated: June 19, 2012
Bishop Matthew Clark will sit down with News 8 on Monday to talk about his upcoming retirement. Clark wrote in a September article to the Catholic Courier saying that he will submit his resignation on his 75th birthday which is July 15th of this year. He has spent 33 years as the leader of Rochester's Catholic Diocese.
The retirement is mandatory as part of Canon Law, and Clark will submit his resignation to the Vatican in Rome.
Pope Benedict will then name a replacement. Clark says he does not know who the next bishop will be, but the process typically takes 10 months. He says it's not unheard of for that process to take 15 months or longer.
Clark says the process and timing of naming a replacement is solely in the hands of the Vatican.
Clark says he wants to be able to leave the diocese in a stable and positive financial condition.
The bishop says he intends to be as helpful as possible to the Church of Rochester and to the new bishop.
