Aide: Mismanagement claims meant to smear Honduras cardinal

VATICAN CITY – Honduran Catholic officials say reports of financial irregularities in the Tegucigalpa archdiocese are aimed at discrediting the archbishop, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a top papal adviser.

Rodriguez Maradiaga turns 75 on Dec. 29, the age when all bishops must offer their resignations to Pope Francis. An archdiocesan spokesman, the Rev. Juan Angel Lopez, told the Honduran church’s Suyapa TV that the airing of the allegations now were aimed at pressuring the pope to accept the resignation immediately.

The Vatican on Friday confirmed that Francis has ordered an investigation into allegations of financial irregularities in the Tegucigalpa archdiocese. Italian newsweekly L’Espresso said the issues include failed investments and payments by one of the cardinal’s deputies to an “intimate friend.”

Lopez said the allegations were an “attack on the Holy Father.”