POPE PUSHES OUT TOP THEOLOGIAN

VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis pushed out the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that handles sex abuse cases and guarantees Catholic orthodoxy around the world.

In a short statement, the Vatican said Francis had thanked German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller for his service as Mueller’s five-year term ends this weekend.

Francis could have kept him on since he will only turn 70 in December and the normal retirement age for bishops is 75.

But the Jesuit Pope instead tapped the No. 2 in the congregation, Jesuit Monsignor Luis Ladaria Ferrer, to succeed Mueller.

Francis’ refusal to renew Mueller’s mandate marked his latest move to remake the Holy See’s hierarchy more in his mercy-over-morals likeness.

It was also the second major shake-up this week, after Francis granted another Vatican hardliner, Cardinal George Pell, a leave of absence to to face trial on sex charges in Australia.

Mueller and Pell were two of the most powerful cardinals in the Vatican, after the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Their absences, coupled with Francis’ earlier demotion of Cardinal Raymond Burke as the Vatican’s chief justice, will likely create a power vacuum for the conservative wing in the Vatican.

During Mueller’s tenure, the sex abuse caseload piled up with Francis confirming last year there was a 2,000-case backlog.

Mueller’s handling of the abuse portfolio came under fire from Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of abuse who resigned from Francis’ sex abuse advisory commission in frustration.

But the greater clash between Mueller and the Pope concerned Francis’ divisive 2016 document on family life “The Joy of Love,” in which he offered a cautious opening allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Church teaching holds that unless these Catholics receive an annulment or a Church decree that their first marriage was invalid, they are committing adultery.

Four conservative cardinals have led the charge attacking the Pope’s document as vague and confusing and publicly requested Francis to clarify it.

Mueller defended the document by insisting it in no way allows Communion for these Catholics because Church tradition simply could not permit it.

But he has made clear he disagrees with Francis’ suggestion that any such decisions could be arrived at in the realm of personal discernment.

“A privatization of the sacramental economy would certainly not be Catholic,” he argued in a 2016 speech.

Ladaria, a Spanish Jesuit, was appointed No. 2 in the congregation in 2008 by Benedict. Francis last year appointed him to lead a commission to study whether women could be deacons in the church.