Does it worry you when your parish gets a new priest?

[PetraG]

Yes. Ask God to select a pastor for you and then take what you get. If you have particular needs, say so.

“Well I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Diggory.
“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.
“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly.
“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked."
–C.S. Lewis, “The Magician’s Nephew”

 

[casslean]

As a parish employee, you would be amazed at how horribly people treat a new priest.

They gossip about the past priest, they pick apart everything he does as if he has ulterior motives, and he gets the past thrown up in his face al the time.

This is part of the reason why they don’t leave them for entre lives anymore.

People idolize the previous person. They don’t just support them or love them, they feel like no one can ever be just as good

The first time I had to deal with our parish changing priests, I had only been a Catholic a few months and was very close to the previous priest because he had taught the RCIA class and had baptized me (and thus we spent a lot of time together as I struggled with the various issues that confronted me in joining the church). Before he left, he took me aside and told me not to make any judgment about the new priest for a little while, because otherwise all I was going to do was hate him for not being “my” priest.

I didn’t “click” with the new guy, really, but at least the transition was manageable and I was able to build some sort of relationship that we could work with.

If you go in looking for problems, you’ll find exactly what you expect.