Do you have a foreign priest or pastor?

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The man that brought me into the Church was Irish American, he still is Irish American he’s still alive just very old. His parents were from Ireland though. I actually did meet an Irish priest sometime last year, I think it was last year, and he was an older guy, and he was very soft-spoken and very polite. I liked him.
 
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We currently have a Priest from Sri Lanka & one from Slovakia. Both are in the process of Incardination into the Archdiocese.
 
Yes. He’s from Columbia and fantastic. Highly spiritual and approachable. Very serious when he needs to be. They say he is a wonderful confessor. I know he’s a great boss! Everyone loves him. He doesn’t take amy crap from people either. He’s merciful, but strong.
 
I love Polish priests. They tend to be (from what I’ve seen) incredibly straightforward and orthodox. We have a good few Polish priests in the area I live in.
 
hadulzo said:
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.
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Is this him?


I’m on the NW side of Chicago, and my pastor is from Poland but did his doctoral studies in Spain, so he is trilingual, which is exactly what the demographics of our parish require. My former pastor is also from Poland, as is the assistant pastor. When I was growing up, the parish I was in normally had a preist from India in residence (though not pastor).
 
No he is at st Bernadette in evergreen park.
 
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We have a Parochial Vicar from Africa. Thick accent, hard to understand. We know the prayers by heart, but can’t understand a word.
 
My hometown parish, which is probably 99.9 percent white ethnic factory worker types, has had a priest from Africa for several years. Everyone including me likes him. He is truly a people person, did a wonderful funeral for my mom, and got me interested in praying for the dead, which helped my spirituality tremendously. The only thing I don’t like about him is that he thinks fish fries in Lent take too much focus off Jesus, but I’ll let that slide (and keep going to all the other churches’ fish fries). I think he is going to be reassigned soon though, which makes me a bit sad.
 
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This past July our parish transitioned from four older/elderly Jesuits to diocesan priests. The Diocese transferred in two priests from other parishes and “brought in” a priest from Cameroon. Father Henri just experienced snow for the first time. That was sort of fun.
 
My pastor is an order priest from India and is bi-ritual (Syro-Malabar & Latin). I started using a daily missal about that time, as his accent and inflection is a bit hard to understand at times and it helps to see the words so I can train my ear. He brought adoration to my parish and is pushing renovations to make our building appear more catholic (tabernacle, crucified Christ in main sanctuary & kneelers).

About once a month, a newly ordained diocesean priest who was born in Nigeria comes in for an all night prayer vigil, confessions & adoration.

I live in the Southern United States and this is rather unexpected for many travelers!
 
We have had 3 priests from Nigeria and 1 from the Philippines in my parish over the past
9 years as well as our American born priests.
 
Our present priest is from India. He’s from the Canonical Congregation Missionaries of Faith so the Bishop appointed him Administrator, not Pastor, since he could be recalled by his Superior at any time. His accent is fairly thick but he’s easy enough to understand unless he’s reading his homily.

We’ve had a previous Indian assistant Pastor and we’ve had both a Peruvian O.M.I. and a Filipino as Pastors. All were easy to understand. Our diocese has no seminarians at this time so getting priests means asking Bishops and Superiors in countries where we used to send missionaries to send us any they can spare. Out of 21 active priests in our diocese, 12 are non-Canadians, most from India.
 
Glad to see so many are supportive of their foreign-born pastors. Some of the most distressing calls to take in parish offices are those of people complaining that they can’t comprehend the accent of some. It hurts their feelings no end, and most try very hard to enunciate clearly and even practice their diction outside of Mass. Love to see respect for the clergy in practice! ✝️
 
I think they are wonderful, even with the heavy accents. I like hearing perspectives that are different from the US perspective. It is a breath of fresh air.

Ours is not a rich parish, but reasonably well off, that has “new suburbia” going out in one direction and farmland in the other direction. I approached our new pastor from Ghana at our parish picnic last summer and introduced myself. I said, “This probably seems like a long way from home for you.” He smiled and said, “You have no idea.” I am sure he was very right about that.
 
YES! Welcome the stranger! Especially is he is offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for you! 😍
 
I can’t even imagine how much these men have sacrificed to come here and provide this incredible service. Being a priest seems like a lonely vocation, and they leave their home, their country, their families, even their language to come here. Knowing that, I can’t for a minute begrudge them something as silly or petty as an accent or sometimes mangling the language.
 
Three priests in residence at my parish.

Two are Americans. One of them is the pastor. The third priest is Nigerian. He has a bit of an accent. Not too much (many Nigerians, especially educated Nigerians, speak English from childhood). We all got used to it. No problem.
 
It can take a little while to tune into an accent,sometimes a few weeks of mass .Having less background noise is good.My elderly parents soon adjust and are so grateful to our Indian priests 🙂
 
I remember talking to Father Emmanuel, I asked him what his first language was, and he told me he didn’t have one. He learned three different languages at the same time growing up. Plus he later on, learned German, Dutch, and French. Nigerians are great polyglots.
 
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