I'm sure there is no celebration in the bishop's house over the saga of the Rev. Bill Rowe. The bishop feels as if he did the correct thing by methodically following through with the removal of Father Bill from his priestly duties because he would not follow the rules.

Of course the rules were hammered out in a high-level meeting of a bunch of well-educated clergy in Rome centuries ago and have since been modified at the whims of men (high-level clergy) when they felt there should be another tweak to the liturgy. Divine intervention to change the Mass can only come from the high-level clergy. God forbid -- I'm sorry, Rome forbid -- any intervention on the local level (Father Bill Rowe universe).

I consider Rowe a living martyr because the Catholic leadership has killed his right to do what he really wants to do. I hope he will follow Martin Luther, not to the burning stake but lead his followers to a new hope Catholic tradition that allows ad libbing and real human understanding of leadership on the front lines.

I think the inflexibility of our Catholic leadership has already shown them that their future isn't positive right now in many areas of their ministries. There are some wonderful people involved in the Catholic ministries doing wonderful things, but for many of these hard-working Christians, their biggest problem in my eyes is the "black eye" the Catholic leadership keeps showing in the public eye.

Chuck DeLorme

Lebanon