By RICHARD ESSEX
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The Rev. Theodore Rothrock, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, wrote that leaders of the Black Lives Matter and Antifa are pushing a left-wing socialist agenda and don’t care about their supporters.
The statements were published in a weekly newsletter that were removed Monday from the church website, but not before members of Carmel Against Racial Injustice read the message.
Pictures of the post were sent to News 8. In the newsletter, Rothrock says in reference to leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization, “The only lives that matter are their own and the only power they seek is their own.
“They are wolves in wolves clothing, masked thieves and bandits, seeking only to devour the life of the poor and profit from the fear of others. 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.”
Ashten Spilker, one of the founding members of Carmel Against Racial injustice, told News 8, “This was a thought-out statement. That he made this, was printed and given to members of the parish on Sunday, so this went through multiple hands. He read over this. He was deliberate in his wording. He was deliberate in his statements. ‘Maggots’ and ‘parasites’ is a pretty straightforward insult.”
No one at noon Mass on Tuesday would speak publicly about the comments.
Carmel Against Racial Injustice planned a daylong protest against Rothrock to start at 6:30 a.m. Sunday at the church.
Diocese of Lafayette suspends priest
On Wednesday the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette suspended Father Theodore Rothrock. A statement published on the Diocese website and on Facebook read:
“In the wake of Father Rothrock’s June 28 bulletin article, Bishop Doherty has suspended him from public ministry. The Bishop expresses pastoral concern for the affected communities. The suspension offers the Bishop an opportunity for pastoral discernment for the good of the diocese and for the good of Father Rothrock.”
Read the full statement at this link.