Bishop Gumbleton announces his retirement

Published: 2006-01-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit, internationally known for his activism for peace, human rights and the poor, announced Jan. 26 that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted his resignation. Jan. 26 was his 76th birthday. As of Jan. 27, there was no official announcement from the Vatican press office about the bishop's resignation. When he was ordained a bishop in 1968, he was 38 and the youngest bishop in the country. From 1972 to 1991 Bishop Gumbleton was founding president of Pax Christi USA, the U.S. branch of the international Catholic peace movement. From 1976 to 1984 he was president of Bread for the World, an interfaith organization that fights world hunger through research, education and advocacy. An early advocate of nuclear disarmament, he was a member of the committee that drafted the U.S. bishops' landmark 1983 pastoral letter, "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response."

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .