Photo: Andreas Arnold/DPAPope Francis has dismissed the church's chief of doctrine, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller -- one of the most powerful cardinals at the Vatican -- and appointed a Spanish archbishop to the role, the Vatican said on Saturday. "In space of three days, two leading Vatican cardinals out of their posts," said Vatican watcher Christopher Lamb, after Vatican finance chief George Pell was charged with historical sexual assault this week. The Vatican said Mueller's five-year term would not be renewed and he would be replaced by CDF secretary Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a 73-year-old Spaniard. 'Neither angel, nor pope'Francis may not have liked Mueller's "excessive media exposure" and "interventions... that almost always sounded like he was distancing himself from the pope", Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli wrote in the Vatican Insider. His dismissal comes at the end of a turbulent week in the heartland of the Roman Catholic faith, following the charges of sexual offences brought against the Vatican finance chief on Thursday.

Source: The Local July 02, 2017 09:33 UTC