CALIFORNIA
Religion News Service
David Gibson | May 21, 2015
(RNS) The San Francisco priest who sparked controversy earlier this year by barring altar girls has been replaced as chaplain of the church’s Catholic grade school.
The Rev. Joseph Illo also made news in February when he gave students at Star of the Sea School a form to prepare them for confession, asking whether they had masturbated or advised anyone to have an abortion.
Illo later said the confession form was a mistake, but the controversies added to the clamor surrounding San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, an outspoken conservative and opponent of gay marriage who is embroiled in a dispute with teachers at several Catholic schools about morality clauses in a new handbook.
Illo’s removal as school chaplain was made quietly, appearing April 29 in a listing of personnel changes in the archdiocese that named the Rev. Vito Perrone as the new chaplain. Typically the pastor will serve as chaplain of a school that is attached to a parish, but another person can be designated for the role.
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