A German Bishop in Peru Resigned in July and Now Thinks He’s Married. It’s Invalid, But What Happens Next?

German-born Bishop Reinhold Nann of Peru says he is now married.​

A German news outlet reported last week that a bishop who took early retirement last year has contracted marriage civilly, despite claims that he resigned over health reasons.

The Holy See press office announced last July it had accepted the resignation of 63 year-old Bishop Reinhold Nann, the German-born prelate who led the Peruvian territorial prelature of Caravelí.



Bishop Reinhold Nann. Credit: Vatican media.

The Vatican bollettino did not give an official reason for the resignation, which came more than a decade before the usual episcopal age of retirement, though the reason cited publicly at the time was that the bishop was suffering from ill health.

But on Sunday, the German news service KNA reported that the bishop has disclosed that the actual reason for his resignation was his relationship with a local woman.

“Depression was the reason [for the resignation]; love was the cause,” the bishop told KNA, stating that when he resigned, he had informed his ecclesiastical superiors that he planned to leave the priesthood to pursue a relationship with the Peruvian woman with whom he now cohabits.

The bishop told KNA that he had struck up a relationship in the face of loneliness he encountered as a bishop, facing the “the abysses, tragedies, abuse, mediocrity and lies” which he says he encountered “the higher [he] climbed” in the Church’s hierarchy.

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