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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993                   TAG: 9304070267
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: STATE NOTE: SHORTER 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.                                LENGTH: Short

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ACCUSED ARCHBISHOP'S RESIGNATION ACCEPTED

An archbishop's resignation was accepted Tuesday, a move that parishioners and priests hoped would signal the start of the Roman Catholic Church's recovery from a series of sex scandals in New Mexico.

Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez, 59, the nation's first Hispanic archbishop. Sanchez offered to step down March 19 after allegations surfaced that he had sex with several women in the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s.

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