Do you have a foreign priest or pastor?

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This is more for US Catholics, although I’d be interested in (name removed by moderator)ut from anywhere.

I’m in the diocese of Richmond, VA, which covers most of the state except the DC suburbs in the north. Our last bishop, who died earlier this year, dealt with the priest shortage by bringing in priests from other countries. I read online that our diocese has 40-50 “international priests.” I have encountered priests in the diocese from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa.

My parish has a new pastor who is from Ghana. He has a doctorate in finance, of all things, and he was formerly the pastor of a “cluster” of four parishes in Appalachia. My mental image of him ministering to people up in the mountains is kind of humorous, in a good way. It almost seems like you could make a sitcom out it!

His English takes your full attention to understand, but he gives really, really good sermons and he is great to meet with for spiritual advice. He is very down to Earth and deals straight with the issue at hand. He gave a two-part sermon (two weekends in a row) on forgiveness several weeks ago. My wife and I are still talking about it.

The other foreign priest who sticks in my mind goes back about 15 years to another diocese. We had a young priest from India, who had long hair and a beard. He looked just like the stereotypical “holy card” pictures of Jesus. It was almost scary! But the pastor made him cut his hair and lose the beard.

I don’t want to get into the whole priest shortage issue. I just wanted to say that my experience with foreign priests has been very positive. How about yours?
 
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Our pastor was recruited from Poland. He got his education in our diocease along with English. Was the youngest pastor in Chicago. The Cardinal recruited him. Best pastor we have had IMO. He goes back to visit familt in Poland every two years. Also took a pilgrimage to Poland smd they had dinner at his parents farm.
 
When I first moved to my (small, rural) parish, my priest was South African. Lovely accent, well-read, had all the British accomplishments. Used to minister to Death Row inmates and had tremendous experiences.

His successor was a first-generation American; his parents were immigrants from Mexico. The ESL thing mostly came up when he spoke/read-- he wouldn’t make the pauses in the places you’d normally expect-- and sometimes that made you work to follow what he was saying. But he was a nice guy, very local and homegrown, and we enjoyed our time with him.

Current priest is from Nigeria. His accent is much thicker, and he doesn’t quite have the grasp of Western politeness… he’s very blunt, and says exactly what he means. 🙂 So that took a lot of adjustment, to not take the bluntness personally; it’s just how he communicates. 🙂 But I like him as well; I know he’s been through a lot in Nigeria (as in, someone tried to kill him for being a priest), and it would be interesting if he told us more about what brought him to the US.
 
My pastor is from Malta. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand him, but he is a good pastor. My parish is lucky to have him.
 
There is a lack of priests in the UK and the government is not allowing priests from third world countries to come.
 
Currently, all of our priests are Midwesterners. However, we’ve had foreign priests before, and having traveled quite a bit, I’ve run across several. I tend to have an ‘ear’ for foreign accents, so rarely do I come across one that I think is truly difficult to understand, but I have a few times. I also understand that not everyone has this blessing and find even a slight accent challenging to listen to and understand. All of that said, I don’t recall ever coming across a foreign priest in any parish that wasn’t absolutely adored by his parishioners. My experience has also been that most of these foreign priests have come from an area where Christianity is much more of an active choice rather than a common ‘given’ for the majority (at least in name) as it is in our American culture, so there tends to be a bit passion that really shows forth from their vocation.
 
Those from foreign countries have different experiences and a different point of view. Sometimes, they may also come from a background of persecution for their Faith.
It is not surprising they are often quite amazing to us.
 
Our pastor is from Costa Rica, and our vicar is from Mexico. Both of them are absolutely wonderful men, and I always look forward to their homilies.
 
That is ironic. It seems like they welcome terrorists from third world countries. I heard on the news yesterday that something like 3,500 terrorists from the UK who went to fight for ISIS are currently returning home in the wake of recent crushing defeats of the “caliphate.” The government seems to have no problem with that.
 
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Growing up in the 60s and 70s, my parish always had 3 priests and, almost always, 2 of them were Irish. Our pastor who retired 3 years ago and was pastor for 25 years was Irish. In recent years, we have had parochial vicars from Poland, Tanzania, Colombia, Peru, & Nigeria and our current pastor is from Rhode Island. His accent took some getting used to as well:-). But they have all been good and holy priests and we have been lucky to have all of them!!!
 
I think my pastor said he came from India? Possible. He’s an excellent priest, compassionate about the faith and really helps me
 
We have a couple of Priests from India ,very devout and reverent 🙂
 
Yes I do, born and raised in Poland and raised partially in Germany. He speaks fluent German and Polish. And the last one we had, who is someone who I consider to be like my father, no offense to the guy we have now, is from Nigeria.
 
I know a priest from India, who preaches loud, but is very soft-spoken and polite in confession. I really like him.
 
Both our pastor and assistant priest are European. Our past assistant priest was European as well. I feels odd to me to hear Mass said without an accent.

I love our priests. They bring such richness to the parish because they have that experience of living and working in Europe.
 
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jfz178 said:
I just wanted to say that my experience with foreign priests has been very positive. How about yours?
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In my parish we have a few Eastern European priests, mostly from Poland. Also an Indian priest in a neighbouring parish. The Dominican Priory in my town has a Trinidadian priest as well. He is actually the priest who said my wedding mass and also a good friend of our family.
 
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