Hopeful newspaper report about a priest, director of liturgy for the Diocese of Covington, who survived a car crash with serious burns

He undergoes twice-daily showers and changes of the bandages on his fingers. Each shower and change takes about 90 minutes.

"In the Cincinnati burn unit, I was like a mummy at one stage," he said.

He’s now wearing his work clothes again, a crème-colored habit designed in 1120 and still worn by members of the Norbertine order of monks.

Using a speakerphone, he fields telephone calls from fellow priests in the diocese with questions about the proper way to do things. "I’m expected to know (the rules), or where to find them," he said.

He’s also resumed his duties as a spiritual advisor to men studying for the priesthood at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Delhi Township.

The hospital has restricted his visiting hours because all the visitors prevented the staff from finishing his afternoon physical therapy sessions.

Visitors come from the Cathedral and from old St. Mary’s Church in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, where Fitzgerald used to regularly celebrate the Latin Mass.