Catholic Pastor Told to Clarify 'Maggots, Parasites' Remarks

A bishop has asked a suburban Indianapolis Catholic pastor to clarify remarks in which he compared the Black Lives Matter movement and its organizers to “maggots and parasites.”

Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana said Tuesday that the Rev. Theodore Rothrock of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel should issue a clarification of comments that the pastor wrote Sunday in a weekly bulletin message.

Rothrock wrote: “The only lives that matter are their own and the only power they seek is their own. ... They are maggots and parasites at best, feeding off the isolation of addiction and broken families.”