Edward M. Rice
Edward Matthew Rice was born July 28, 1960, in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from St. Mary's High School in St. Louis and earned a Master of Divinity from Kenrick School of Theology (1987). He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on January 3, 1987, by Archbishop John L. May.
As a St. Louis priest he taught at St. Mary's High School, led Cardinal Glennon College, became pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, and directed the archdiocesan Office of Vocations. On December 1, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and titular bishop of Sufes; he was consecrated on January 13, 2011.
Pope Francis appointed him the seventh Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on April 26, 2016, and he was installed June 1, 2016. He remains the diocesan bishop as of mid-2026. His most-noted acts touching liturgy are his 2021 decision to leave the Traditional Latin Mass untouched under Traditionis Custodes and his 2023 request that all diocesan priests celebrate the Novus Ordo facing the people, which drew national attention.
Bishop Rice's record cuts two ways. On the Traditional Latin Mass itself he acted as a friend: when Traditionis Custodes landed in July 2021, he declined to restrict the older rite, stating that there would be no change to the current practice at this time. Priests already offering the 1962 Missal in the diocese, including at the chapel of the O'Reilly Catholic Student Center in Springfield, were allowed to continue. There is no FSSP or ICKSP apostolate in the diocese; the TLM there is offered by diocesan priests.
On the wider question of reverent liturgy, however, his deeds point the other way. In August 2023 he requested that every priest celebrate the Novus Ordo facing the people, discouraging the ad orientem posture that many traditional-minded Catholics regard as the more ancient and God-directed orientation. Notably he used the language of request rather than a formal decree, and admitted no priest had actually asked to do otherwise, yet he asserted his rightful authority and sought a supporting reply from the Dicastery for Divine Worship.
The result is a bishop who protects the extraordinary form while working to narrow reverent options within the ordinary form. He preserves the Latin Mass as a matter of tolerance but frames a preference for ad orientem worship with suspicion. On deeds and dates, this is a mixed record, not that of a wholehearted ally of the traditional movement.