The president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference confirmed the dismissal and laicization of an auxiliary bishop because of sexual misconduct, but offered no further details about the case.

Archbishop Salvador Pineiro Garcia-Calderon of Ayacucho confirmed in a statement Sept. 26 that an auxiliary in his see, Bishop Gabino Miranda Melgarejo, had been dismissed “for crimes against the sixth commandment, in a process subject to pontifical secrecy.”

The archbishop said the apostolic nunciature in Peru had informed him of the Vatican’s decision July 5.

“The sanction that the Holy See has applied to Mr. Gabino Miranda Melgarejo is the strictest of punishments for a cleric: the total loss of the clerical state,” he said in the statement, which he signed as archbishop of Ayacucho rather than president of the bishops’ conference.