Watch Now Father Mark
Father Mark White of Martinsville and his supporters took their peaceful protest back to the steps of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond on Sunday.
Enrique Rangel-Rodriguez, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a parishioner at St. Joseph in Martinsville, said he knew that students would be returning to campus this past weekend and that Father Michael Boehling, the vicar general of the diocese, would be celebrating Mass at the cathedral to welcome students.
Rangel-Rodriquez suggested White and his group hold a vigil outside the cathedral at 5:15 p.m. while Mass was being celebrated. He also thought it would be an opportunity to engage other VCU students as they passed by and explain White’s plight.
Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout has declared the matter closed, but White and his supporters are still seeking consideration from Knestout and even the Vatican that would result in White’s being restored to his position as priest of St. Joseph as well as St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount.
White was removed from both parishes and stripped of his priestly duties for contributing to a popular 12-year-old personal blog that has been visited by more than a million people and occasionally waxes critically about the church hierarchy’s handling of the sex abuse crisis.