On August 15 (the Solemnity of the Assumption), Paraguay will receive a new president: Fernando Lugo Mendez. From 1994 till 2005, Mendez was a Catholic bishop. According to the law of Paraguay, clerics cannot hold public office. Thus, Mendez has asked for laicization, and Pope Benedict XVI has granted it.

Laicization means that a deacon or priest (rarely a bishop) is dispensed of his faculty and may function as a laymen. However, the laicized cleric is still a cleric and bears the indelible mark of Holy Orders. Thus, Mendez is ontologically a bishop, though he can no longer function in this way.

The laicization of a bishop is extremely rare, so this is worth noting.