Changing parishes?

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Hi,

I’d love thoughts/suggestions on this. I have two issues that are making me consider another parish.
  1. Our parish is a bit more liberal than I’m confortable with including their stance on the elections. Our priest held up the Catholic Answers voter’s guide and another that was “approved” by our diocese at Mass the Sunday before the elections saying we shouldn’t used the Catholic Answers guide because it was “too narrow in scope” where as the other guide holds environmentalism on the same level as abortion, stem cell research, euthanisia, etc. I about fell out of the pew. I was later told our priest was just following marching orders, but I found it really surprising. The new parish we are considering is VERY conservative and there is really a sense of community there we do not feel at the current parish.
  2. I’ve been asked to join be on the board of a home school co-op to which I belong that is at the new parish I mentioned above. Not many home school in my current parish. I will be spending a good deal of time at the new parish for co-op activities.
Right now I teach two faith formation classes (Kindergarten and 1st grade) at our current parish and I’m not sure it would be in good form to leave except for the fact they have other classes or instructors that could handle the other students.

My husband is of the feeling we should just cut all ties and migrate to the other church. I’m feeling some guilt…

So, my question is (being a rather newbie to the TRUE teachings of the church) what is justification for changing parishes? Is there a protocol? Is it fair for me to leave given the classes I teach?

Thanks in advance!

Blessings,
Cathie
 
Hi Cathie, I am one of the few in these forums that believes you should not leave your current Church but try and stay and make it better. I am in the minority on this though. It’s only my opinion.
 
Cathie,

My answer for you…changed parishes when the Holy Spirit leads you to do so. Follow God’s will for your life, not your will of where you want to be.

I was in a very liberal parish and eventually found this to be more detrimental to my soul. I didn’t need to search - the Holy Spirit guided me to exactly where I needed to be. My new parish has daily Adoration, no lay people saying homilies, delivered us strict voting guidelines that conformed to our faith, and we get regular sermons on the gravity of sin and the need for confession.

The line for weekly confession at my new church is awesome!

Did you think possibly the devil is placing guilt on your mind because he does not want you to deepen your relationship with God by moving to a more orthodox church? The devil will use any trick he can to convince you to stay in a situation where you are not getting closer to God.

As for your classes, be ready to fulfill your committment if your priest wants you to. You can address the decision of changing parishes with your priest and let him make the choice for you.
 
A lot of problems occured in my Current Parish over a decade ago. I would not get involved in the silly fighting. I had young children at the time. Two of them were to make their Sacraments that year. I joined another nearby Parish enrolled the children in CCD. They made their Commuion and Confirmation there. About 18 months later, when the new Pastor left and the healing finally was over with we returned. I did not like doing this but the violence and problems so called “grownups” were causing I could not subject my young children to this. Maybe if it were now and my Children are mostly grown, I would have fought for what is right, but there was to much foul language and violence and I did not want my children to hear or see that.
 
We struggled for about 2 years deciding if we should look for a new parish. The last straw was when we recieved a new priest who made such statements as “if you don’t think you’ve commited a mortal sin than you haven’t. Too many people were* staying away* from communion.” I don’t know what people he was talking about because there was barely a person left sitting in the pews when we went up for commnunion.

He also totally bashed The Passion movie even though he admitted he never saw it. Saying “concentrating on Christ’s suffering and making people feel guilty for their sins isn’t good for healthy spiritual growth.”

And his cat had a article in the bulletin every week, in one of the articles “cat” stated how he liked to *lie under the front pew during Mass. *

We did a frustrating search of the churches in our area and finally found a wonderful parish, loyal to the magestium. It took us about 6 months to absolutely make the final decision to leave (Our original parish I had attened since I was in preschool.)

I have no regrets and wish we would have done it sooner. My husband and I have been spiritually growing in this new parish and our daughter is ccd classes that actually teach the faith.

I think if the archdiosese sees that parishes that are orthodox in nature are growing and those more liberal parishes are shrinking it will open some eyes.

As a side note unlike most of the parishes in are archdiocese we have no problems getting vocations to the priesthood and send several young men to seminary every year.
 
I’d like to humbly change my position. I think the advice to pray and follow the Holy Spirit is much better. I do know of some people that stuck it out in spiritually poor parishes and witnessed a turnaround later. That may be the exception and not the rule.
 
I would like to add a personal testimony from my 8 yr old son who was completely opposed to changing churches. He loved our liberal church ( because it seemed like ONE big coffee hour).It has been several months now since we have been at our new church. We had an occasion to attend a mass at our old church on a vacation day - the time of this mass fit better with our schedule for the day. After mass, my 8 yr old son said, " Mom, it didn’t feel like mass. I like our new church better. It just feels better."

WOW - I was so happy the Holy Spirit has worked in my son’s heart as well to bring him to a closer relationship with God.

Follow the Holy Spirit.
 
Thanks for all your words and advice. We’ve decided to change parishes, but I will continue to teach religious ed and fulfill my commitment. The Faith Formation program is the only place I feel I can really make a difference, especially since it’s with ones so young!

God Bless you all and thanks again!
Cathie
 
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