Congregants yelling stuff at priests during the homily

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I went to my first mass Thursday. They had ushers and the deacon walked me to my seat. Then when it came time for communion the pastor gave very detailed instruction on receiving communion. Then the ushers were overbearing in enforcing the rules. I told the usher “ I got it”! It ruined the mass and communion for me. I wrote a note to the deacon.
I am very upset with the response to the virus. My bishop even said that the health of the parishioners is the number 1 objective. I thought preaching the gospel and administering the sacrament was the number 1 job.
I have no issue with removing the obligation for Sunday mass And allowing any priest who feels vulnerable not saying mass. But those of us who wanted to attend mass should. Have been given the opportunity IMO!
 
It was a wretched Parish and it got what it deserved. It was closed and everything scattered to the four winds. 💨
 
Sorry this happened at your Mass.

Went to my first Mass today and everybody acted like people.
 
I was taught to be quiet in church. Apparently, this guy wasn’t.
 
That’s appalling! I honestly wonder if the person was indeed mentally disturbed (although not in a typically chaotic and externally visible fashion). Such a strange action in what seems so obviously not the place, not the time. At least, sounds like the fellow was emotionally disturbed, whether it counts as an official ‘condition’ or not.

I pray that God brings peace to his soul and mind, one way or another. And consoles your priest who I imagine may have felt unsettled by the experience, too.

PS in answer to your question, no, I’ve never personally seen that at Mass. Thank God.
 
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Although I’m not Catholic, I attended a Baptist Easter service once at which a man yelled out “Bull Sh__” in response to the pastor exclaiming, “He is Risen”.

The man (he looked like he might have been homeless) was quickly escorted out by a couple of ushers. First and only time such a thing ever happened where I was in attendance.
 
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I have been thinking about it and it may be that he was just so upset by the lack of Mass and all we have had to deal with, that his emotions got the better of him.

I went into this suspended-Mass thing all brave and tough and figuring I could do it if all those underground Catholics during times of persecution, and even all the early US settlers who saw a priest a few times a year only, could do it. But by the end of about 6 weeks I was upset and crying in confession about feeling abandoned by God and how it seemed so unfair. The beer store stayed open, yet we can’t have socially distanced Mass? I have discovered I’m in a much better mood when receiving Jesus regularly. The priests are all saying a lot of people were very stressed out by not having Mass.
 
I don’t know, but I hope in such situations that priests/ushers/whoever handle it discretely.

In my opinion in these situation, feeding it with attention will only make it worse. The less attention given to outbursts, the better. Don’t give it a stage.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
when the priest said something outlandish (e.g., “we don’t worry about what the Church teaches anymore, we follow our conscience”)
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At least you had his permission to not worry about what he said when you follow your conscience.
 
I have never seen this except in particular circumstances, like disturbed people or elderly and uninhibited folks at nursing homes’ celebrations.

What I am seeing, however, is people having a hard time with the end of lockdown from a mix of fears and emotions that suddenly is (at last) acknowledged, and some really weird/aggressive/overemotional reactions in otherwise normal situations.
 
Only political issues, where the yeller does not distinguish between Catholic teaching and political talking points.
 
Dovekin said:
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HomeschoolDad:
when the priest said something outlandish (e.g., “we don’t worry about what the Church teaches anymore, we follow our conscience”)
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At least you had his permission to not worry about what he said when you follow your conscience.
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I am not going to go down the rabbit hole of “aren’t you ‘following your conscience’ when you allow your conscience to be formed a priori in lockstep with the moral teachings of the Church?”, but this priest meant dissenting from Church teachings on birth control, and other sexual matters where the larger society departs from Catholic morality, and acting accordingly.

I think we all know there are a lot of people — I am not going to assign percentages here, or entertain questions of “most”, “the vast majority”, and so on — who carve out certain parts of their moral lives, usually where sexual morality is concerned, and do what they want to do, appealing to “conscience” if the question ever comes up.
 
Tommy999 said:
Although I’m not Catholic, I attended a Baptist Easter service once at which a man yelled out “Bull Sh__” in response to the pastor exclaiming, “He is Risen”.

The man (he looked like he might have been homeless) was quickly escorted out by a couple of ushers. First and only time such a thing ever happened where I was in attendance.
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I’ve sort of half observed something similar: a homeless man who seemingly came in to shout at a priest for awhile. But he did it in the confessional (cut in line from the entrance door; wasn’t waiting in line as if to actually attend confession; situation though was himself in the one closed booth, the priest in the other closed booth), and no one escorted him out. We could just hear shouting and anger from outside the booth, in the queue. He just eventually tired himself out, I guess, and left.

Reminded me how often our priests are targets and easy scapegoats for the anger of so many. And how people know exactly how to find them (including find them when they’re sort of a ‘trapped audience’) to express that anger.

Pray for our priests.
 
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He looks to be around 40 something and gave a homily a few months ago talking about his past work in the insurance field.

I reckon he’ll fit in great at the K of C.
 
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Interesting. I recently read about a Deacon in his 70s in Australia who was a widower and became a priest. Life can be so weird sometimes…
 
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