Congregants yelling stuff at priests during the homily

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Tis_Bearself

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Today I attended my first Sunday Mass at the nearby parish since late March, which was fine except that when the priest was giving his homily, some guy in the congregation felt a need to interject a loud critical comment into the middle of it.

This is the first time I can remember anybody yelling out at Mass who wasn’t either mentally unwell/disturbed or staging a protest at a big Mass with the Bishop or Pope or similar. I am excluding of course the situation where the priest is asking a question and inviting folks to call out the answer, and the charismatic Masses where people call out “Amen!” and similar responses, often prompted or encouraged by the priest.

The priest handled it gracefully and moved right on, but I’m just wondering if anyone else has seen anything similar lately (apart from the mentally disturbed or staging-a-protest situations). I hope it is not becoming the norm as I was taken aback by the seeming disrespect.
 
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That sounds odd. I’ve never seen that. Was it a political thing?
 
No, apparently he was angry because the public Masses had been suspended for 2 months here.
But I did wonder if people are yelling political things elsewhere, or yelling about the suspension of Masses.
And yes it was odd.
 
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I’ve never seen that done.

About the only time I think it might be justified would be if 1) the priest said something that absolutely contradicted Catholic dogma with no room for misunderstanding (i.e. Jesus wasn’t divine; there’s no Trinity, etc., or 2) the priest said something wholly inappropriate but not necessarily contradictory of dogma (i.e. trashing the pastor to the congregation; I had that happen once at my parish; the priest was transferred immediately, and the pastor addressed it the next week to all the masses).
 
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I saw a video of a guy and his son giving a priest backtalk after refusing to leave because they weren’t wearing masks. The priest had to involve the police, which I imagine was the bishops policy.
 
What the guy said was incorrect, also. I had to restrain myself from adding to the pile by yelling out a correction. Like I said, Father (who is an older second-career priest) handled it great and moved right along.
 
This was common in some parishes I’ve attended. It usually came when there was a shall we say, controversial priest. But from your postings I’d be surprised if that were the case.
Congrats on attending again!
We should be understanding of those who may be upset at what happened. However Mass is never the place for this.
 
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I remember something once that happened at Mass when I was in elementary school. I’m 60 now so this was a long time ago. We had some special “sisters” (nuns) from another country come as guests. I don’t remember why they came, they may have been missionaries. I think they were collecting for some mission or cause at the time. They were black nuns and as they passed down the aisles a man grumbled something loudly about them and what were they doing here? and also made a racist remark. He sounded a little drunk too. No one did or said anything just ignored him. That was the only time I ever heard someone speak out like that at church.

Debbie
 
Let me get this straight…
Mass is finally happening for the faithful and he’s protesting that it was closed? Kind of a moot point now!

Also, are you certain he’s not mentally ill. It certainly isn’t normal behavior except in the unusual circumstances you described.

I’m glad the priest was able to continue and shake it off…that’s not always easy to do!
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I hope it is not becoming the norm as I was taken aback by the seeming disrespect.
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I sincerely doubt it is going to become the norm. I would also expect the clergy to deal with it appropriately.
Most people are grateful to get back into Mass.
I would not even entertain the idea this would become the norm.
No one really would know if this person does have issues that
Tis_Bearself said:
wasn’t either mentally unwell/disturbed
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The pandemic has caused a lot of stress and increase in anxiety. People react differently.
The global pandemic is getting worse right now, we should treasure every Mass we are able to attend atm IMHO.
 
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not out loud per say, but certain priests have mentioned it happening to them at other parishes. sadly I’m not surprised.

the closest I’ve gotten to anything like that was some guy trying to talk to me during mass about how the priest shouldn’t have a right to preach because he had a thick accent. still extremely rude, but at least it wasn’t out loud
 
In the 90s on college campuses it was common for this type of thing. At least that was my experience. And Catholic Churches are being vandalized and burned. We live in a time now where we are told to “listen” when others act out when they feel an injustice. So I think we could see some of this in many places.
To be fair, I feel this person’s frustration. I know others feel differently but I get it and I don’t think it’s a moot point at all now. BUT, the Eucharist should not be used in this way. I lost it in confession the other day. Poor father! I went off on an angry tirade. His face was so sad. He apologized so much and he cried. I felt about two feet tall. But it had just built up over the past few months.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The priest handled it gracefully and moved right on, but I’m just wondering if anyone else has seen anything similar lately
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Over a decade ago, a Parishioner in the choir grabbed the microphone and berated the Priest. I believe the matter was over problems with the Church parking lot.

That is the only time that I have experienced it. I pray that it’s not catching on now…
 
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A handful of times, when the priest said something outlandish (e.g., “we don’t worry about what the Church teaches anymore, we follow our conscience”), I have whispered to myself “no, no, that is wrong” and shook my head — it might have been audible to my immediate neighbor — but nothing beyond that. That is just not a “Catholic thing”. We don’t do that.
 
Yeah, I’ve quietly gotten up and walked out a few times when it was so outlandish it bordered on profane. But apart from the sound of my feet I wouldn’t dare make a peep at Mass.
 
Sounds like a lot of interesting things happened at that parish if people are that bold. Berating a priest at Mass over a parking lot. Sounds like satire.
 
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