Following the death of Father Piotrzkowski, on September 12, 1965 Rev. William Maat O.S.B. took up the post as Seventh Pastor of Holy Rosary Parish.
Father Maat brought many changes to the parish. He removed the altar rail and pulpit, and he installed a new “low” altar in front of the high altar to celebrate Mass versus populum.
In August of 1966, a new sixteen-foot 200-pound cross was hoisted up to the steeple to replace the one destroyed in the 1965 earthquake.
The new cross was designed by Mr. Floyd Olsen. Mr. John McDonald and the students at Tacoma Vocational Institute (now Bates Technical College) fabricated and welded the cross. Donations were taken for the manufacture of the cross, and the names of the benefactors were placed inside.
In the summer of 1967, Father had the low altar moved to the center of the church with pews placed facing it inside the sanctuary. This last move proved one change too many, as following a vote of the parish, it was moved back into the sanctuary.
A possibly apocryphal story has it that following its first and only use in the center of the church, the low altar was physically moved back to the sanctuary after Mass by the men of the parish.
Later that same summer, the first public concelebrated Mass in the City of Tacoma was celebrated at Holy Rosary Church.
Just one year later, Rev. Felix Wirth, O.S.B. was appointed to replace Father Maat as pastor.