Congregants yelling stuff at priests during the homily

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It’s not weird. I remember a secretary in my nephew’s office whose mother became a nun after her husband died.
 
Amazing! I wonder if I would have the courage to pursue a similar path should the unthinkable happen…

Also found this story which is very lovely:

aleteia.org

Italian priest concelebrates his 100th birthday Mass with his 4 sons, also priests — Aleteia

A spiritual son of Padre Pio, Fr. Vaccarini hasn't wasted a minute of his century-long life. Father, priest, father of priests, centenarian, author, disciple of Padre Pio, Veteran of World War II… Perhaps we could think of Fr. Probo Vaccarini as a sort of spiritual Forrest Gump
aleteia.org
 
I don’t think the actions men and women take after their spouses die is weird, only that life in general is weird. You often end up in places you never expect to.

If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be Catholic, I would have laughed in your face.
 
Our priests haven’t publicly acknowledged where their rectory is. They are not on church grounds. I stlll
don’t know where they live after almost 20 years. I guess they don’t want anyone to know where they live for many good reasons. One could be a disgruntled parishioner and threaten them.
 
I think people have become a little “squirrely” over time. They are irrational in many ways. Why do they insist upon hoarding paper goods?

Another thing is their monkey see-monkey do attitudes. If one does it, the rest do it, which might explain why they can’t get enough toilet paper. They must have closets full of it (toilet paper).

At Mass the other day, a man wanted to sit in my pew. I didn’t want

to sit too close to anyone, so I left him get in (I got up and stepped out) and then I resumed my end seat. A woman and her four kids were two pews ahead of us. At communion time, everyone lines up in the order in which they were seated. This guy seemed to be wanting me to get ahead of everyone else because he was impatient - he left right afterward.

The lady with the four kids had her hands full. She finally got out of line and rejoined the line when the kids calmed down. I still don’t know what the man expected me to do.
 
Dovekin said:
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HomeschoolDad:
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?”
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You are so far down that rabbit hole, I am afraid you will never get out.

I was just pointing out that he was like the Wizard of Oz announcing “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” from his place behind the curtain. He invalidates himself. ( on the assumption that you have given an accurate account of what he said, which is by no means certain.)
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Quite a way with words, haven’t you?

I am perfectly content to take myself down the “rabbit hole” of “the teachings of the Church ARE my ‘conscience’”, and to stay there.

And yes, I have at times in my life, felt the promptings of “conscience” telling me to do something other than what the Church teaches. That was when I took that little critter, gave him a good hard smack, told him “shaddap, ya”, and clung to the Church’s teaching for dear life. Think of Moe smacking Curly. 🙂


Luther followed his “conscience” right out of the Church. That “conscience”, not reason, was the real Frau Jezebel.

I do not “mute” threads, but that is the last I am going to say about this matter. Think as you will.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
And yes, I have at times in my life, felt the promptings of “conscience” telling me to do something other than what the Church teaches. That was when I took that little critter, gave him a good hard smack, told him “shaddap, ya” , and clung to the Church’s teaching for dear life.
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It’s a pity more people don’t do this.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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.
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Yes! You nailed it.

This three month shut-down of the country is unpredented for most of us. I know that during WWII, there were mandatory blackouts, but people could still get together during the daytime or even during the evening and draw strength from each other’s company.

But this…!

I think many of us have run the gamut of emotions from utter despair, fear of ourselves or a loved one catching the virus and dying, anger at the extra work of cooking every single meal at home, frustration at some of the inconsistencies in the shut-down (like you said, grocery stores open, but small local specialty shops that sell food and other items order to stay closed and of course, liquor stores open, but not coffee shops?!!

Anyway, I would give the man a break. It may have been something that he was holding in for weeks, perhaps a reaction to something that happened during the shut-down, and it finally came out in a place where he felt safe with his “family” of fellow believers.
 
I think all open-entry gatherings face this problem.

Not sure about the US but I think across most of the western world there are a number of things contributing to it: improved mental health drugs leading to people being ‘cared for’ in the community; addictions and consequent unusual behaviour; and social media which encourages instant responses.

Should the Catholic Church wish to employ me as a PR consultant I would suggest that where this is a problem a series of standard steps involving demonstrable kindness and firmness be taken in a planned way. Preferably there should be some equally kind signage warning people of what will happen to those who disrupt. I would recommend that anyone speaking or presiding at a disrupted event (outside politics) immediately sit down and allow others to deal with the problem. In a Catholic Mass this would apply to the priest, readers and others with a formal role. Just stop, deal with it, and continue.
 
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