Fray Marcos Rodríguez leaves Parquelagos church outside Madrid after disputes over the Mass
Fray Marcos Rodríguez Robles has published a 350-page book on the Eucharist after leaving the church of Parquelagos, outside Madrid, where he ministered for more than 40 years and was at one point banned from celebrating Mass
Dominican friar Fray Marcos Rodríguez Robles has left the church of Parquelagos, in the mountains outside Madrid, where he served for more than 40 years. Sources in the community told Iglesia Noticias that his departure has sharply reduced the number of Masses there. Mass is now celebrated only on Sundays, and on two weekdays a celebration of the Word replaces the daily Mass.
His departure coincides with the publication of a book that goes straight to the subject that has caused him the most controversy in his career. Esto soy yo is number 12 in the Colección Exégesis Fe Adulta, runs to 350 pages, sells for 16 euros and is dated October 2026. Its central subject is the Eucharist. Rodríguez does not avoid the question in the introduction, saying bluntly that celebrating a Eucharist in a home was "the last straw that led them to ban me from saying Mass."
Defending a criticized practice
Rodríguez defends that celebration by recalling that for centuries the home was the only place where the Eucharist was celebrated, and he openly asks what tradition those who reproach him for it are appealing to. In the same introduction he says his views on the sacrament will again be misunderstood, and he recalls that one magazine accused him at the time of "watering down" the Eucharist.
He also criticizes those he says hold a magical view of the rite, and writes that after 64 years celebrating it he still asks himself what has been done wrong with it. The way he celebrated Mass had been criticized for some time. In 2022 the Spanish Catholic website InfoVaticana called him the Madrid priest who "makes up the Mass." The complaints included dispensing with the missal, turning the celebration into something close to a show, and consecrating in a way that raised well-founded doubts about the validity of what was celebrated.
Disputes over liturgical formulas
He was also criticized for his use of the formula "blood shed for all," which Rome had corrected to restore the "for many" of the Latin text. His homilies, posted online through the website Fe Adulta, contained statements that drew controversy, and Rodríguez said in an interview that he had received several warnings.
Born in Pardesivil, in the province of León, in 1938, Rodríguez worked in pastoral ministry for more than 50 years in Parquelagos and La Navata, and from both he extended his influence online. In Parquelagos he pushed for the construction of a small church, and a community formed around it that he put at about 200 people. With Esto soy yo he sets down in writing his view of the Mass.
