Bishop John Iffert of Covington, Kentucky has suspended the faculties of two priests at a traditionalist parish.
The bishop announced that Fathers Shannon Collins and Sean Kopczynski no longer had permission to celebrate the sacraments, thus leaving the parish that they administered—Our Lady of Lourdes—without priests. The bishop said that he hoped to continue providing for parishioners, but the situation was complicated by the fact that the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, to which the two priests belong, own the church building and have not authorized its use by other clerics.
Bishop Iffert said that he took action because of “serious concerns about the parish’s pastoral leadership.” He reported that in a recent homily Father Collins had dismissed the Novus Ordo as “irrelevant” and claimed that the reform of the liturgy after Vatican II was prompted by hatred for the ancient ritual.