William Medley
William Francis Medley was born on September 17, 1952, in Marion County, Kentucky, to James Werner and Dorothy C. Hayden Medley, and was baptized at St. Francis of Assisi in St. Francis. After St. Thomas Seminary High School he took a bachelor of arts in philosophy and psychology from Bellarmine University and a master of divinity from Saint Meinrad School of Theology. Before ordination he worked as a social worker for the Kentucky Department of Human Resources from 1974 to 1978. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville on May 22, 1982, at the Cathedral of the Assumption by Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly.
His Louisville ministry moved from parish work to diocesan responsibility. He was associate pastor at St. Pius X Parish in Louisville from 1982 to 1985 and chaplain at Assumption High School, then associate pastor at the Cathedral of the Assumption until 1988, administrator of three Louisville parishes in 1988, and director of the Office of Clergy Personnel in 1989. In 1990 he became the establishing pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish, and in September 1993 pastor of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, designated a minor basilica during his tenure. Later posts included Mother of Good Counsel (2005), Transfiguration in Goshen (2007), and the merged St. Bernadette parish (2008).
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him the fourth Bishop of Owensboro on December 15, 2009, and he was ordained bishop on February 10, 2010, for 32 Kentucky counties. He still holds the see in October 2026. His episcopate has been marked by visits to his priests' home countries, by December 2021 tornado relief, and, in 2026, by the decision ending the diocese's only Traditional Latin Mass.
- 2021-07-16Traditionis Custodes issued. Medley initially secured a dispensation for Immaculate Conception, Earlington, to continue its weekly celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass amid the 2021 restrictions, so the diocese's only old Mass survived the first years of the regime. ↗
- 2023Medley's correspondence with the Holy See in 2023, as he later described it in his May 2026 letter, stipulated that any renewal of permission would require a further report giving attendance figures and recounting the steps taken to lead the faithful attached to the antecedent liturgy towards the liturgical books reformed after Vatican II. The exact 2023 date was not stated in the sources fetched, so the year alone is given here. ↗
- 2026-05-18Medley wrote to Fr. David Kennedy, parish priest at Earlington, directing him not to celebrate Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962 after June 30, 2026, on the ground that he was unable to demonstrate the Holy See's renewal condition had been met and therefore had no standing to request an extension. He granted permission instead for the Novus Ordo in Latin and ad orientem. ↗
- 2026-06-28Final Mass in the extraordinary form at Immaculate Conception, Earlington, at 12:30 p.m. CT, ending the only weekly Traditional Latin Mass in western Kentucky. The diocese confirmed the parish would transition to the scheduled details in the bishop's correspondence after June 30. ↗
Owensboro entered the Traditionis Custodes era with exactly one weekly Traditional Latin Mass, at Immaculate Conception Parish in Earlington, the oldest Catholic church in Hopkins County, where it had been offered for nearly a decade. It was the only parish offering the old Mass in a diocese covering the 32 westernmost counties of Kentucky, and parish staff told EWTN News the church was pretty full for it, with many worshippers travelling from outside parish lines. Bishop Medley, who was already ordinary when the motu proprio issued, initially secured a dispensation for the parish to continue its weekly celebration amid the 2021 restrictions, so the Mass survived the first years of the new regime on his own earlier act.
The end came by his own governing act in 2026, not by attrition. In a letter dated May 18, 2026, to the parish priest, Fr. David Kennedy, Medley directed that Mass according to the 1962 Missal cease after June 30, 2026; the final Mass in the extraordinary form was celebrated at 12:30 p.m. on June 28. His stated reason was procedural and self-limiting: his 2023 correspondence with the Holy See required any renewal request to include a further report giving attendance figures and recounting the steps taken to lead the faithful attached to the antecedent liturgy towards the reformed liturgical books, and he wrote that he was unable to demonstrate that condition had been met, so he had no standing to request an extension. He had postponed acting after the death of Pope Francis to see whether Pope Leo XIV would alter the restrictions, and, noting that the January consistory had opted not to review Traditionis Custodes, said he felt obligated to act in accord with the direction of the Holy See. In place of the old Mass he granted permission for the Novus Ordo in Latin and ad orientem.
That replacement does not soften the verdict, because what was withdrawn was precisely the 1962 Missal, and what was offered was the reformed Missal in Latin. A congregation that was full, a priest who was not shown to have rebelled, and a community that had not collapsed cannot make this attrition: the Mass ended because its bishop, having the power to seek renewal, concluded he could not satisfy Rome's condition and ordered it stopped. Owensboro therefore stands as a suppression, and the diocese's faithful must now travel to Louisville, Evansville, or Nashville for the old Mass.