Do priests/nuns watch "fun" TV?

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Kind of a dumb question, but I can’t picture them really sitting down to watch Friends or American Idol.
 
I’m sure some do, but some don’t- depends on the order. I can imagine a bunch of Franciscans watching American Idol, but I couldn’t imagine a bunch of Opus Dei numenaries and priests doing that.
 
I think that diocesan priests may have a little more time in their schedule to watch TV for fun than those in a religious order. We had a parish priest who loved movies and music. He watched some TV also. He could tell you about the newest Christian music before even our teens had heard it.

He would go see all of the movies that teens/youth were likely to watch (in advance of wide openings if possible) so that he could tell them and/or their parents if it was suitable for a certain age group or not at all. He would explain about things rather than just condemn them without an explanation, so everyone really respected his opinions.

Right now, I have a pastor who is has a “fun” personality. In his spare hours he likes to watch some sports just like other guys and he leads an annual ski trip. He did say that he might be getting too old to ski since he is now in his 60s.
 
Our Franciscan Friars watch television, and they love horror/thriller flicks ironically. I don’t think they mean the blood thirsty kind though. How they get time, I have no idea. One sermon during Advent in 2006 was based on a commercial “Crest White Strips”. I nearly croaked and prayed that my wife would overlook it. She was in RCIA. It was lame to me.

A preacher of ours in about 2000 gave a lesson on culture and talked about how he was flicking through channels and stopped on Spring Break whatever. After he talked about it he said I turned the station 45 minutes into it…:eek: We nearly died and laughed in horror partly. But our Friars would never do or at least admit to doing something like that.
 
vocatio said:
A preacher of ours in about 2000 gave a lesson on culture and talked about how he was flicking through channels and stopped on Spring Break whatever. After he talked about it he said I turned the station 45 minutes into it…:eek: We nearly died and laughed in horror partly. But our Friars would never do or at least admit to doing something like that.
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Don’t be too hard on him. Sometimes like a car wreck or something else horrible that you cannot believe is happening, it is hard to turn away. I’ve stared in amazement at some things for quite a few minutes before finally realizing that such it is not going to get better and I had better turn the channel.
 
HeWillProvide said:
Kind of a dumb question, but I can’t picture them really sitting down to watch Friends or American Idol.
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A priest at my parish in college was a huge Star Trek fan, and he knew many of us liked the show as well. He would tape the Next Generation episodes for us as they were during our Sunday night mass time. Then he’d leave the copy in the student center for us to watch during the week.

On the other hand, the contemplative Benedictines I knew never watched TV except as a community (19 or 20 sisters), and then it was only the Olympics, or a video of a movie – these occasions were only once or twice a year at most.

So, depends on the order and the community.

Gertie
 
I think that TV can be used in an ok manner, but many things on it are not really a good, moral thing. Friends has an unmarried mother and there are laugh tracks around that story line. I don’t know - I am sure they do if they want to and don’t if they don’t want to. I am also sure they don’t have the ones who immediately get home and then ‘sit on the couch scratching themselves while expecting others to serve them while they watch something stupid on TV’ sort of mentality either.
 
Years ago, I taught w/ a little, old nun who loved Wheel of Fortune! —KCT
 
I know our pastor is glued to the TV when the Green Bay Packers play. Which, of course, will not happen again until next season. 😉
 
HeWillProvide said:
Kind of a dumb question, but I can’t picture them really sitting down to watch Friends or American Idol.
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I am friends on a personal level with my pastor and the seminarian in formation at the parish. From time to time, we can be found sunday afternoon watching old episodes of Start Trek.

(Frankly, the work that man has done to help that parish, up to and including building a chapel in the rectory to celebrate daily liturgy and the divine office open to the faithful, he deserves some down time watching Scotty beam people up!)
 
jc-servant said:
Don’t be too hard on him. Sometimes like a car wreck or something else horrible that you cannot believe is happening, it is hard to turn away. I’ve stared in amazement at some things for quite a few minutes before finally realizing that such it is not going to get better and I had better turn the channel.
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The other day, in spite of myself, I had to stop and watch a train wreck of a reality show my roomie was watching. It was so dumb, I could not look away. I just kept thinking "They have to be acting, no one is that dumb and rude…"

Apparently some people are that dumb and rude.

I couldn’t look away… It was like I got sucked into a black whole of ignorance.

Sometimes you can’t help it…
 
Priests are only allowed to watch “boring” TV. City Council meetings on public access, science documentaries on PBS, Jay Leno, that type of thing.

It’s a Canonical issue. :cool:
 
In many small parishes, priests don’t have time to watch TV.
 
Our priest growing up, who was a good family friend, used to go fishing for relaxation. That was probably because he was raised in post WW2 Europe when not that many people could afford tv sets.

Nothing wrong with tv per se. If we can watch it why shouldn’t a priest be able to? Presuming they’re not neglecting their work.
 
one of our bishops here in new zealand loves the simpsons, also i know of a priest that drives standardbred trotters, also another who owns thoroughbreds.
 
unfortunately there is not much good on tv, except for reruns, the discovery channel, and ewtn. I can see the clergy watching it as a medium to gain knowledge of current events, but other than that why bother.
 
I think they do - a priest friend of mine loves “Dirty Jobs,” about some of the most gross jobs people do!
 
Every priest is different. My priest growing up apparently watched TV becuase he would work the TV shows into his homily. He certainly had a gift. He could take the most recent episode of Cheers or whatever TV show was popular at the time (I said this was when I was growing up) and work it in masterfully to the readings of the day. I have never come across another priest who had such a gift. So to answer your question yes priest watch TV but they don’t waste their life in front of the TV like so many people do today.
 
Tom Gibbons, a novice with the Paulists, has written in his terrific blog, www.tgibbons.blogspot.com (“Kicking and Screaming”), that their novitiate has two large screen flat-panel TV’s. He is a child of his generation and it sounds as if he has watched a lot, including during the 1 and a half years he’s been in his order.

I find that most programs are either coarse in their humor, such as “Friends”, which is full of sexual innuendo inappropriate for aspiring religious celibates, or vicious, as in “American Idol”, and most reality programs, and wouldn’t appeal to anyone in religious life. Looks as if I’m wrong.
 
I know one of our priests loves football on TV and is a big fan, but the other hasn’t owned a TV since 1973! They’re all different is the point…
 
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