ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of the Chaldean Catholic bishop of San Diego, California, a decision the Vatican announced Tuesday after the bishop was arrested on corruption charges.
Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta was arrested at San Diego International Airport on March 5 while trying to leave the country, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said last week. The office said it took action after someone at the Shaletta church provided statements and documents that “suggested possible corruption at the church.”
Shaletta was being held on $125,000 bail on eight counts of corruption, money laundering and serious white-collar crime, the statement said.
St. Peter of Chaldea, the parish in Shaleta, sought comment and contact information for its attorney but did not immediately receive a response.
The Vatican said in its daily bulletin on Tuesday that Leo had accepted Schelletta’s resignation in accordance with the canon law of the Eastern Rite Church and that the pope could agree to it if the bishop asked for it.
When Shaletta offered to resign in February, Leo effectively accepted it but did not make the announcement until Tuesday, according to the Vatican’s embassy in Washington. The Holy See appears to have been waiting to announce the decision to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
Leo appointed Bishop Saad Hanna Sirop as interim administrator.
Shaletta, 69, was ordained as pastor of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit in 1984. In 2017, he was ordained as a member of the San Diego Chapter of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in the United States.
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