Speculation is at a fever pitch that Catholic Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., will step down on Monday. Who cares? Well, Vice President Joe Biden for one, I’d suspect, and probably Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey for another.

Martino, 63, has become one of the most outspoken Catholic bishops in the U.S. on the issue of pro-choice (i.e., Democratic) candidates and abortion. Casey, it should be noted, has a pretty solid pro-life record (on most, but not all, issues) Martino has said statements and documents produced by the U.S. Catholic bishops don’t apply in his diocese, and the more he speaks, the more caustic he generally gets.

For now, the diocese is keeping mum, but issued the following cryptic statement:

The Diocese of Scranton will conduct a news conference this Monday, Aug. 31, at 10 a.m. The news conference is not open to the public, and the location cannot be disclosed. The news conference will be broadcast live on Catholic Television: CTV. Afterward, a video of the news conference can be viewed on the Diocesan website at http://www.dioceseofscranton.org There will be no comment from the Diocese prior to the news conference.

The ever-on-top-of-things Rocco Palmo offers his take here.

Martino is probably best known for being notoriously frank on the paramount importance of abortion against all other issues. As we noted in one of our post-election analyses last year:

Some bishops were memorably blunt, such as Bishop Joseph Martino, of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., who told his people: “Being `right’ on taxes, education, health care, immigration and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life.”