Did this priest lead members of the parish into mortal sin?

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Embertide

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I’m visiting my parents in California for Christmas this year. I attended Mass with them at their parish yesterday, which I have always known is progressive/liberal/modernist/whatever you want to call it. For example, during the Gloria, they simply showed a video of musicians singing a Christmas song on their projectors. Throughout the Mass, we clapped at least five times for the accomplishments of the parishioners (musicians, lectors, fundraisers, just about everyone). The priest rarely read from the Missal and just added prayers as he went along.

During the homily, the priest said a few troubling things. First, he said that parents should not bring their children to confession. Then he mentioned how the other day, when there was a long line to confession before Mass, he simply prayed over all of them and told them that God forgives their sins, and that none of them had to individually confess their sins because they made the effort to show up. He said that when they say sorry to God, God hears them and forgives them.

He also told us that it doesn’t matter which or how many Masses we attend next weekend to fulfill the obligation and to just come when and if we have time. In other words, just once on Sunday would be fine according to him.

I’m assuming at least some people will take his advice. Are they morally culpable if they do?
 
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Oh no…pray for this priest.
Perhaps they have reduced culpability, but it depends.
 
Their full knowledge and deliberate consent would likely both be so severely diminished, I don’t think they’d be guilty of sin at all, let alone mortal sin.

The Priest on the other hand… if you’re accurately reporting things, he’d better change his ways and repent and conform himself to the mind of the Church… if not, it will be better if he had not been born when that Dreadful Day arrives.
 
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This video is mostly about Latin Mass and why people want it but at 4:50 Cardinal Sarah reffers to innovations also;

Could this priest just be innovating and that is the core of the problem? Just trying to take the heat of people coming to Church. Maybe he is betting on reversed psychology that if you tell people they don’t have to come they will come more often? How traditional are the people in this community before accusing him on influencing them the wrong way.?Not just your family but the community as a whole if you know them.
 
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"The Church teaches, “In case of grave necessity recourse may be had to a communal celebration of reconciliation with general confession and general absolution. Grave necessity of this sort can arise when there is imminent danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each penitent’s confession.

Grave necessity can also exist when, given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions properly in a reasonable time, so that the penitents through no fault of their own would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long time.

In this case, for the absolution to be valid the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their sins in the time required. The diocesan bishop is the judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist. A large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feasts or pilgrimages does not constitute a case of grave necessity” (CCC 1483).

For practical purposes, outside of an imminent danger of death situation, these conditions would never obtain in our Archdiocese. Moreover, if a penitent sought to have recourse to a general absolution as a means of avoiding individual confession and absolution, the confession would be invalid."
From a website
 
Fishwrap is a disgrace to humanity.

They ought to hang their heads in shame over the way they oppose the Church on literally everything yet still claim to be Catholic.
 
I would have been okay with him deciding to just absolve everybody in the confession line if it was way longer than he could handle in the allotted time due to the holiday, but as for the rest of the stuff, he has got to be at odds with his Bishop and he sounds like some kind of a nut.

I am not one to report the priest for every little thing, but I would report him for this, especially the “you don’t need to go to Mass or confession” stuff, if indeed this is what he said and it wasn’t misunderstood somehow.
 
Ironically, the priest is openly gay. He came out to the congregation during a homily when we was pastor at a different California parish.
 
I don’t get the big deal here, if he is celibate like a Priest should, he runs afoul of no Catholic teachings.
 
Mary888 said:
This video is mostly about Latin Mass and why people want it but at 4:50 Cardinal Sarah reffers to innovations also;
Click to expand...
That is Francis Cardinal Arinze, of Nigeria.

Cardinal Sarah is from Guinea.

Both fantastic Cardinals for their theology and fidelity to the Church.
 
I don’t think it’s up to us to gossip about this priest like this. Yes, he may make mistakes but in the end he’s a man who has devoted his life to Jesus and His church. What have we done compared to him?
 
Embertide said:
I’m assuming at least some people will take his advice. Are they morally culpable if they do?
Click to expand...
I think it would depend on what they know already, and what their reasons for listening to his advice might be. A Catholic who is well catechized would recognize the errors in what he is teaching. One who hasn’t had the benefit of a strong faith formation may not.

If someone were to recognize the error, and then go along with it since “he’s the priest,” they would likely be culpable.

In all cases, though, the priest is complicit

“Our Lord said one day to St. Bridget, that when sinners see the bad example of the priest, they are encouraged to
commit sin, and even begin to glory in the vices of which they were before ashamed. Hence our Lord added that worse maledictions shall fall on the priest than on others, because by his sinful life he brings himself and others to perdition.“

http://www.catholictradition.org/Priests/priesthood1-9.htm
 
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Is this really a Catholic church?
Are they listed in the diocesan directory?
 
From what I understood, he didn’t give a general absolution; he just prayed for each of them and told them to go and that God forgives them because they made the effort to come.
 
Hmm, I’m not familiar enough to know if whatever he did there was absolutely correct, but I know we have had threads before where a long line of people were waiting for Confession and the priest had to leave, and he was somehow able to absolve them all without needing to hear their individual confessions.

I’ve never personally experienced this - the priests in my case when there is a line have either told folks to come back next week, or have made an arrangement to hear more confessions later (like after Mass, or later in the day) if their schedule permitted and told us all to come back then.

My point being I can see wanting to somehow meet the needs of a big crowd of people who came to confess (they already made the effort of coming down and getting in line), but telling people they don’t have to come to Mass on required days doesn’t seem right.
 
I understand where you’re coming from; I am not slandering the priest or his congregation. I’m only asking out of genuinely concern for my family and the faithful of the church.
 
My family is indifferent to the liturgical innovations and what he preaches. As for the rest of the congregation, I don’t know them well enough to say, but Masses are VERY well attended and everyone seems to be on board with everything
 
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