Outspoken South Melbourne priest Father Bob Maguire has lost his fight to stay on as a parish priest.
The Catholic Church has confirmed Father Maguire's tenure at Saint Peter and Paul's parish will end next year.
The archdiocese was putting pressure on the 77-year-old to step down because of his age, but Father Maguire says he wanted to stay on.
He was given the news in a phone call with Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.
"I said well fair enough, you're in charge if that's what you want to do. Nothing I can do about it," he said.
"It's a bit of a shock and it's a bit of a surprise because the Catholic Church globally and locally had been running on the model of conversation."
Father Maguire admits he does not know what he will do next.
"We feel dishonoured down here because we've done a great job," he said.
Archbishop Hart says he is happy with Father Maguire's work but wants to free him of the administrative burden involved with being a parish priest.
"With him being 77 with the way things have gone on, I think it's best for us to allow Father Bob to do the things for which we know and love him but to relieve him of the day-to-day work of the parish of South Melbourne. What we'll do is we will be able to set him up in a base where he can still continue to do his community work. He can relate to the community he loves, he can still say masses in our parishes around Melbourne, so there is lots of flexibility. I don't ever think Bob Maguire will go to a retired priests home."
Bloody minded
Father Maguire says the church is being bloody minded by insisting he retire next year, adding that he hopes the public will lobby the church to allow him to keep working.
"We are doing all the right stuff," he said.
"The church is full. Every time there is a baptism there is 200 people come to join in. I can never work out why, but there they are and people know of us. I mean I know South Melbourne is only small bickies to the world, but as far as we are concerned South Melbourne is the world to us."
Father Maguire was awarded an Order of Australia in 1989 for his services to the community.