The Archbishop of Perth has removed a much-loved priest from the thriving traditional community he was running, and banned him from saying the traditional Mass, in the latest implementation of Pope Francis’s 2021 restrictions on the liturgy.
In a statement
issued December 11, Perth’s Archbishop Timothy Costelloe announced that
Father Michael Rowe was to be stripped of his role as rector of the
thriving Latin Mass community of St. Anne’s.
Citing his 2022 implementations of Pope Francis’ 2021 Traditionis Custodes – in which Costelloe tasked priests to specifically request permission to continue offering the traditional Mass – Costelloe wrote that Rowe had not complied with the archbishop’s requirements, and thus was stripped of his permission to offer the traditional Mass.
As of today’s date, Fr. Rowe has not sought my authorisation to celebrate the Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint John XXIII in 1962.
Therefore I have informed Fr. Rowe that as he has not sought the necessary authorisation required by canon law, and as he has not been authorised to celebrate the Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint John XXIII in 1962 in the Archdiocese of Perth, he is not authorised to celebrate Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint John XXIII in 1962 at the church of St Anne, Belmont, or anywhere else in the Archdiocese of Perth.
Costelloe went on to state that Rowe was not banned from ministry in the Archdiocese, as he retained faculties to offer the Novus Ordo, but that he was only allowed to offer this form of the Mass.
For many years Rowe has been rector of the Latin Mass community in St. Anne’s church in Perth, and since he began his tenure there at the express invitation of emeritus Perth ordinary Archbishop Hickey, the church has gone from strength to strength.
In the December 11 note, Costelloe stipulated that such would no longer be the case. He wrote how he had “reviewed the need for a rector to be appointed to the church of St Anne, Belmont,” in light of Traditionis Custodes.
Consequently, the archbishop wrote “as of today’s date, I have formally revoked Fr. Rowe’s appointment as both the rector of the church of St Anne, Belmont, and as the spiritual leader of the community that gathers there to celebrate the Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint John XXIII in 1962.”
He stated that the community would still be provided with Masses for the time being:
The current timetable of Masses will continue, until determined otherwise, and will be celebrated at the church of St Anne by a group of priests authorised to celebrate the Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 in the Archdiocese of Perth. Arrangements have already been made to this effect in support of the community who gather to worship at the church of St Anne, Belmont.
The archbishop – a key figure in the Synod on Synodality – argued that “it has never been my intention that either the celebration of the Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962 be discontinued at the church of St Anne, or the community itself be ‘closed down.’”
Repeating his own recent words in support of Traditionis Custodes, Costelloe ordered the diocese to accept the papal restrictions on the traditional Mass, since “it is now time for all in the Archdiocese to accept the Pope’s decisions and abide by them as they are set out in our diocesan regulations.”
“I am conscious that some of the decisions I must now make, and the consequences of them, will upset and anger some people,” Costelloe added. “I can only appeal to everyone to put aside their personal preferences and work together to ensure that our communion with the Holy Father, made concrete through our communion with the local bishop, is realised in practice as well as in words.”
Archbishop’s decree is ‘misleading’
In a statement issued to LifeSiteNews and to the community of St. Anne’s upon receiving the decree, Rowe noted that Costelloe’s letter “confirms that I remain a priest in good standing since I have retained faculties within the Archdiocese of Perth,” a fact which Rowe described as “an implicit admission that I have done nothing objectively wrong to suggest otherwise.”
He added how Costelloe’s decree, positing the removal of Rowe as being due to his non-compliance with Traditionis Custodes, was misleading.
That letter appears to suggest the only reason for my removal is a refusal on my part to apply to the Archbishop for permission to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass pursuant to article 5 of the Pope Francis’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (TC).
Whilst the Archbishop has not directly lied in saying this, I reject that characterisation as being an accurate representation of the entire situation in its correct perspective. I believe the Archbishop’s version of events in his open letter has the potential to be misleading and I put out this statement explaining the situation with its true context set in place. [Fr. Rowe’s full statement can be found here.]
Later in his statement, Rowe expanded, writing that he was being removed by Costelloe “not because I have refused to apply for permission that I have been cancelled, but the Archbishop has made it practically impossible for me to meet the conditions to apply for permission in the first place.”
He gave details of a declaration he was ordered to sign regarding the liturgy, which he said contained “troubling propositions… factual errors” or were attempting “to assert things that I simply do not believe are true.”
Background
As alluded to by Rowe, Costelloe has had a strained relationship with St. Anne’s for many years. In 2008, Perth’s emeritus Archbishop Hickey allocated the unused church of St. Anne’s to the Latin Mass community in Perth, stating in writing that it would be the “permanent location” for the Latin Mass.
Appointing Rowe as the parish priest of the “quasi-parish” of St. Anne’s in 2008, Hickey then formally appointed him in writing as rector of the church in 2009, granting him full faculties of a parish priest.
According to Rowe, the parish community has spent over $1 million “on improving the land and property at St Anne’s Belmont, as we were under the impression from Archbishop Hickey’s letters that we were established there permanently as a Quasi-Parish.
Archbishop Costelloe and the Archdiocese now under his leadership did not share that view and had other ideas for St Anne’s.”
The Latin Mass community in Perth under Rowe’s care has blossomed from its initial number of 30 people back in 1996 to around 850 now. He added how the community has produced “9 vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and continues to be a thriving parish with frequent baptisms, confirmations, first Holy Communions and marriages.”
However, Rowe writes that Costelloe ushered in problems for the church from his arrival as new Archbishop of Perth in 2012.
“The Archbishop’s statements and pastoral letters seem to suggest that he is merely following the directions of the Pope in Traditionis Custodes and that he has no choice other than to do the Holy Father’s will. With great respect to the Archbishop, this is hard to believe given that the troubles and animosity he has shown to the Latin Mass Community and myself long pre-date the publication of Traditionis Custodes.”
In 2017, St. Anne’s then came under restrictions from the new prelate, and as Rowe writes “from late 2018 onwards our community was well and truly in the Archbishop’s sights.”
The parish priest of neighboring Cloverdale parish was formally appointed the parish priest of the territorial Novus Ordo parish of Belmont, in which St. Anne’s is located.
Following a secret meeting between the Archbishop and diocesan clergy, to which Rowe was not invited, Costelloe merged St. Anne’s, informing Rowe that Cloverdale parish owned St. Anne’s church and land.
Furthermore, Rowe was told, not by Costelloe, that Cloverdale parish planned to sell St. Anne’s, thus making the community homeless.
Numerous legal appeals to both civil and canonical courts have been rejected or ruled against Rowe and St. Anne’s community. Indeed, as Rowe wrote:
From 2018 onwards until the present time, the legal dispute over rights to the use of the St Anne’s Church land has been stressful, long and not a decision I took lightly. I knew at the outset that litigation carried great risk, and whatever the case at civil law: win or lose, I knew there was a greater risk that the friction with the Archbishop would likely result in my personal persecution by him. That prediction has proved right.
Parishioners of St. Anne’s have previously sent over 400 letters to the Archbishop, petitioning him not to implement the restrictions on their spiritual life, via his curtailing of the Mass. As noted by Rowe, Costelloe has not taken up repeated offers to come and visit the thriving community.
The rector of St. Anne’s fought for a number of years to preserve the future of the congregation and the traditional community ever since Costelloe merged St. Anne’s with the parish which planned to sell the land.
This legal battle has been conducted in civil courts, after the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy refused to intervene, referencing that the appeal was too late — a technicality of canon law — by being outside of the 10-day time limit.
After fighting for the future of St. Anne’s in the courts for several years, Rowe received news that the courts had rejected his final challenge to the Archbishop’s attempt to take the church of St. Anne’s away from the congregation.
He had appealed to the High Court of Australia, asking for them to hear his case, with the hope that the High Court would overturn the earlier rulings in the same way it did for Cardinal George Pell in 2020.
The court delivered the ruling only days before Costelloe issued his 2022 restrictive measures on the traditional liturgy, landing St. Anne’s with a double assault from the courts and the Archdiocese in a matter of days.
Despite losing the legal battles, Rowe stated that he had “no regrets because at all times the only thing that motivated me was to fight for the good of those souls at St Anne’s and having such a fight for the salvation of souls was worth it.”