White Knestout McCarrick Catholic
Title: Dispute between Father Mark White of Martinsville and Bishop of Richmond Barry Knestout will be decided by a Catholic court
Author: Bill Wyatt
Publisher: Martinsville Bulletin
Date: 03May2020
The boiling dispute between a Martinsville priest and a Richmond bishop could wind up spilling over the doorstep of the Vatican in Rome.
That is the intention of Michael Podhajsky, the canon lawyer retained by Father Mark White to defend against the efforts of Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout to remove White as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Rocky Mount.
Knestout issued a decree effective April 13, the day after Easter Sunday, removing White and declaring the priest had “persistently disregarded” repeated instructions “to desist from his scurrilous and public, published attacks on His Holiness, Pope Francis and other members of the hierarchy.”
“My canon lawyer and I both communicated with the bishop our intention to contest his decision to remove me from office, following the normal procedure to do so,” White said. “The church-law effect of the contest is: I remain pastor until the process concludes.”
But Knestout maintains he has the authority to reassign White. In a letter to the parishioners of both churches, written the same day as the decree, Knestout wrote that White had been reassigned as “chaplain to various prisons, state and federal, within the diocesan bounds.”
“He has received a new assignment and will [be] leaving the area within the week,” Knestout wrote.
Said White: “He wrote that I must vacate my residence by April 17, and should I continue to disobey, he will petition for my removal from the priesthood.”
For more information visit: https://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/news/local/watch-now-father-mark-white-of-martinsville-will-aim-canon-at-the-bishop-of-richmond/article_80721a8a-d463-593b-9de0-9bc616a18554.amp.html