A priest who was removed from his parish for improvising prayers during the celebration of Mass has now been suspended from all other priestly duties—a severe punishment usually only meted out to priests accused of such grave crimes as child abuse. The Rev. Bill Rowe, 72, had been a parish priest at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mount Carmel, Ill., for 18 years. A U.S.-based liturgy specialist and chaplain said: “Many Catholic priests now are over 65. If the church starts going around checking up on the way they are saying Mass, they may find many of them are not always sticking to the exact wording of the Mass—especially since the new translation was introduced…. It is also unpleasant to think that the bishop listened to a small number of parishioners who had been secretly recording Father Rowe. This sends an awful message to our already overstretched clergy.”
Prayer Interpreter Out
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
At a Mass for the Jubilee of Youth outside Rome, Pope Leo exhorted over a million young people to be "seeds of hope" and a "sign that a different world is possible."
Perhaps it is the hard-won wisdom that comes with age, but the Catholic rituals and practices I once scorned are the same rituals and practices that now usher me into God's presence, time and time again.
"Only through patient and inclusive dialogue" can "a just and lasting conflict resolution can be achieved" in the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, said the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations.
The ”Bad Guys” films ask, how do we determine who the “bad guys” are? And if you’re marked as “bad” from the start, can you ever make good?