ROME: The Vatican has disciplined another charismatic religious leader, exiling the founder of an Italian monastic community over governance problems.

Enzo Bose, a Catholic layman who founded the Bose Monastery in northern Italy, had enjoyed the blessing of three popes for his outreach to other Christians.

He was appointed an ecumenical expert for Vatican meetings in 2008, 2012 and 2018, and Pope Francis named Bose as an adviser to the Vatican’s ecumenical office in 2014.

But the Vatican launched an investigation last year after what the community said were a series of concerns from the Holy See that indicated a tense situation and problems concerning the exercise of authority by the founder, governance issues and the fraternal climate in the community.

Bose, 77, started the community during the 1960s and handed off its leadership in 2017, but apparently the transition didn’t go smoothly.

According to a statement on the monastery website on Wednesday, the Vatican ordered Bose and three others to leave the community and to cease all their functions in it.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2020