LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A priest in Carmel, Indiana, has been suspended after describing racial injustice protesters as “maggots and parasites.”
The Very Rev. Theodore Rothrock was suspended Wednesday by the Diocese of Lafayette, with the bishop expressing “pastoral concern for the affected communities.”
In comments that were posted to the St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church website, Rothrock criticized Black Lives Matter protesters and others around the nation who for weeks have marched against racial injustice and police brutality.
In the comments, which have since been removed, Rotrock wrote that the church must oppose BLM and Antifa and carry the “message of peace.”
“They are maggots and parasites at best, feeding off the isolation of addiction and broken families, and offering to replace any current frustration and anxiety with more misery and greater resentment,” Rothrock wrote.
He continued, “Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the other nefarious acolytes of their persuasion are not the friends or allies we have been led to believe.”
Bishop Timothy L. Doherty said in a statement that he “neither approved nor previewed” Rothrock’s post, according to a story by FOX59.
“Pastors do not submit bulletin articles or homilies to my offices before they are delivered. I expect Father Rothrock to issue a clarification about his intended message,” Doherty said. “I have not known him to depart from Church teaching in matters of doctrine and social justice.”
In another message on the church website, Rothrock wrote that “it was not (his) intention to offend anyone ... and I am sorry that my words have caused any hurt to anyone.”
He also wrote, “Racial and ethnic bigotries are evils that have been rightly condemned by the Church and are not to be tolerated. They have never been tolerated by me, and never will be. Life is a sacred gift from God and must be reverenced as such. The institutional sin of black enslavement had to be removed from our nation at a terrible cost and the damage has not departed from us. The sin of bigotry has remained a part of the fabric of our society.”
In response to Rothrock’s initial post, a group called “Carmel Against Racial Injustices” plans to protest in front of the church Sunday.
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