A bit more than 22 years ago, our old friend Diogenes called attention to the “dash-2 bishops”— the prelates who had retired before reaching the ordinary retirement age (which is 75), citing #401-2 of the Code of Canon Law, which stipulates that a bishop’s early retirement may be accepted "because of illness or some other grave reason."

This was in 2004, in the wake of the sex-abuse scandal, when a number of American bishops resigned, shortly after having received some very unfavorable publicity. The Vatican announcement invariably cited #401-2, offering no further explanation of the bishop’s premature exit.

The problem with this approach, as Diogenes observed, is that the “dash-2 bishops” departed under clouds of suspicion. In most cases that suspicion was amply justified, but what of those unfortunate bishops who did have serious health problems that forced them out of active ministry? They were, unfortunately, tarred with the same brush.

The solution to this problem, we have always argued, would be candor. Separate out the two reasons for retirement— health concerns and “other grave reason”— making them, say #401-2 and #401-3. We wouldn’t need to see the bishop’s full medical records in the former case, or hear his general confession in the latter. But we would no longer suspect the worst of bishops who were actually innocent.

This week brought out a new reason to amend Canon 401. Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow (technically the Archdiocese of the Mother of God) resigned at the age of just 65. The announcement caught Russian Catholics by surprise. Had the archbishop been caught up in geopolitical tensions stemming from the Ukraine war? Had he (and the Vatican) been under pressure to endorse the Russian military cause— or at least refrain from criticizing it? There have been no rumors about the sort of misconduct or mismanagement that prompted other “dash-2” resignations. For the record, Archbishop Pezzi insisted that he was resigning because of his health; he gave no further details.

Or Maybe the archbishop is facing a serious health problem, which for his own good reasons he does not wish to discuss. But in this case, lingering suspicions— not about the archbishop, but about the situation in which he was placed— my be warranted.