Spanish-language parishioners say the pastor has demeaned their community and insulted their community’s priest, a Rev. Martin.

The parishioners claim Kaywell, who started at the parish on Jan. 30, has made numerous derogatory remarks about Martin in front of the parishioners. This includes, but was not limited to, interfering with his activities as a priest, calling him “Speedy Gonzalez” and mimicking his accent.

Martin, who was ordained as a Catholic priest 26 years ago in Venezuela, speaks seven languages and has been at Sacred Heart for more than six years, said he is not behind the move to oust Kaywell.

…Kaywell put a notice in the parish bulletin reaffirming his commitment to keep the Mass, but made things worse in the eyes of the Spanish community when he referred to Martin as “our own Ricardo Montalban.”

In the following week’s bulletin, Kaywell added an apology about the comment saying it was not meant to be derogatory, but as a compliment, but the damage had already been done.

A related article which goes into a bit more detail and underscores the history of various problems…I must say that this sounds very, very familiar. I used to work at a parish in Florida that hosted the Spanish Mass for the area, the pastor was a buffoon much prone to make idiotic remarks like this (although his tendency was to imitate African-American accents from the pulpit, not Spanish), the Spanish-language community was treated as an afterthought…yup.