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Pope Francis names Msgr. Michael Fisher as new auxiliary bishop of Washington

Catholic Standard

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The role of an auxiliary bishop is to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral needs of the diocese, and Bishop-elect Fisher will assist Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington who serves as spiritual leader to more than 655,000 Catholics living in the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes the nation’s capital and the five surrounding Maryland counties. 

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The New York Times 

By The Associated Press

July 2, 2018

Family: Priest Boots Funeral From Church, Casket and All

CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. — A priest kicked a funeral out of a Maryland church and the family says he disrespected the deceased.

Before a funeral Mass for A H could begin at St. Mary Catholic Church in Charlotte Hall last week, WTTG-TV reports a guest knocked over a chalice, damaging it and angering the Rev. Michael Briese. 

H' daughter, S H, said Briese ordered everyone out and disrespected her mother, saying "'get this thing out of my church! Everyone get the hell out of my church!' It was very sad. I've never seen anything like that before."

Another priest later completed the service at a funeral home.

"This was uncalled for and it really hurt me. It really did. To see your loved one come there to rest and to be shut down like that," L H, the brother of A H said.

Briese apologized in a letter to the editor in The Enterprise, a twice-weekly newspaper in California, Maryland.

"I lost my temper at a moment when anger was the most inappropriate response to those people entrusted to my care at that moment of ministry," he wrote.

What occurred at the church "does not reflect the Catholic Church's fundamental calling to respect and uplift the God-given dignity of every person," the Most Rev. Michael Fisher, the Archdiocese of Washington's secretary for ministerial leadership and Auxiliary Bishop-elect, said in a letter to H' family.

Briese was not at the parish over the weekend. The archdiocese isn't discussing any repercussions Briese faces, as it is an ongoing employee matter, archdiocese spokeswoman Chieko Noguchi said by telephone.

T J, a pallbearer and cousin of A X, who was black, told The Enterprise that Briese, who is white, tried to explain he wasn't racist.

"Nobody said anything about race," T J said. "We were just sayin he was being disrespectful."