Héctor Aguer, outspoken archbishop of La Plata, resigns as he turns 75

The outspoken and controversial archbishop of La Plata, Héctor Aguer, presented his resignation to Pope Francis on his 75th birthday Thursday, after reaching retirement age.

However, there was no immediate word from from the Vatican as to when it would be accepted. “It could be two days, three months or two years,” a Church spokesperson from La Plata told the press. The supposedly departing cleric has various ecclesiastical activities lined up for the next few days, including a keynote Mass titled “In defence of life” scheduled for next weekend.

Archbishop of the Buenos Aires provincial capital throughout this century (since June, 2000), Aguer has made a name for himself for some of his harsh stances on modern life and diversity. Of late, those views have marked him as out of step with Pope Francis’ direction of the Church and public pronouncements of tolerance.

While his blanket rejection of abortion is far from unique within the Catholic hierarchy, Aguer has been more extreme on other issues.

Not only did he oppose gay marriage but he banned it from being mentioned as an option in Catholic schools – homosexuals should “control themselves,” he once insisted. A stern critic of “fornication” in all forms, he blamed gender violence and even paedophilia on the decline of the institution of marriage and gay lifestyle choices.

He also consistently urged “reconciliation” as the best approach to the human rights crimes of the 1976-83 military dictatorship, rejecting the “memory, truth and justice” statements of human rights groups and advocates.

Perhaps one of his more eccentric stances was to condemn Father Christmas as an imperialistic invention.