Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

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.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024