Giving Priests the Benefit of the Doubt

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I truly wonder what Priests, on retreat, have to say about the laity?

My guess: It is both true and ugly.

We need to pray more.
 
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Actually, some times you can’t. What if you don’t drive due to vision problems, you don’t have family or friends in the area, or they have schedules where they cannot drive you to a Mass elsewhere, there isn’t public transportation, etc? So you’re basically stuck there.

What if you have tried, not ‘talking AT’ the priest, but truly, humbly, asking ‘why’ and he has responded, politely, happily, that he is certain what he does is ‘best for the people’, and that ‘just go with the Spirit" is what he expects as a reaction? What if of the other people at Mass who discuss the situation, the majority are absolutely thrilled with abuses–and we’re talking REAL ABUSES, not "bad music’ or the occasional extra word-- because they love the thrill of feeling that they are doing it ‘better’–and the ones who are not happy have also ‘asked’ and know that there is no way to change the priest’s mind, and so they grit their teeth and go as long as they can stand it until he says something so outrageous that they walk out and never come back?

Don’t you think that most people WANT to give the benefit of the doubt? That they beat themselves up, that they take months, YEARS, of suffering and worry and trying to argue that, “well, he may tell us all kinds of heresy but he has such good intentions, and where are we supposed to go, and let’s take it one Sunday at a time”, over and over, until they have children and, unlike other parishes, those children can’t have their little missals or Magnifikid to help them learn about Mass because THIS Mass ‘doesn’t follow the rules’, THIS priest doesn’t teach the same lessons, etc. etc… . and another family goes off to a different parish, or worse, a family that has gotten used to the ‘different Mass and teaching’ gets tired because the disobedience they’re used to becomes 'oldfashioned and stale, and so they go off to a protestant ‘happy service’, or become ‘nones’.

It’s not just about, "I don’t like how Father does X’. It’s about, “Something is not right, and over time it hurts, and even poisons, our families and friends.”
 
I don’t blame our Franciscan friars for anything. They are very holy men and wonderful priests.

My biggest complaint is I don’t like holding hands during the Our Father. I used to position myself so that I wouldn’t have to do that. Now that I sit in the handicapped area, that’s not an issue.

My parish is friendly and vibrant. Maybe I’m just a fuddy duddy.

I love the friars and my fellow parishioners.
 
I hold my hands in the classic prayer position, palms together at my chest. Oh, that, my gloves and the anti-virus mask I wear tends to keep others at a distance.

Stem cell transplant. Immune compromised.
 
I’m sorry to hear of your condition. And may God strengthen and heal you.

As to my point, I’m not germaphobic. I prefer to focus on the Our Father and save the handshaking for the sign of peace.
 
Ah, it’s only been 11 years, one cancer, two relapses, three cancers simultaneously, 20 chemotherapy/anti-rejection drugs, total body irradiation, 4 clinical trials, 1,000 years of radiation from CT/PET scans, too many lymph node, bone marrow and skin punch biopsies to count, and a 99.5% chance of not surviving all of it.

During all of this, I’m also completing my EhD.

Examination of human Durability.

Speaking of priests, sometimes, people ask me about the Sacrament of Anointing and God’s mercy…
 
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A prayer for @po18guy.

Dear St. Anthony, you recognized Our Lord Jesus
as the Divine Healer. Great Wonder Worker, in your
kindness, please intercede for po18guy. Please pray
that God will grant him: the gift of healing; comfort
during times of unbearable pain; peace and patience
in suffering; the fullness of life here on earth; and
a home in eternal glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
 
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My question to you is are you ordained in any way?
The reason I ask is that you seem to passing judgment on someone who has been ordained.
Before I look at others, I try to seek our my own faults and correct those faults. We all are sinners, even priests.
I will pray for you and the priest at your church. 🙏🙏🙏
 
Excuse me? When did it become a requirement that a lay person could not comment (not ‘judge’), simply report as statements of fact what occur at a Mass?

Is it judgmental to report that a priest does not say the Creed when, in fact, he does not? I did not make any ‘judgments’ whatsoever as to why he does not, but I am certainly permitted to note the omission.

Though I do indeed appreciate and thank you for the prayers.
 
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Any issues I’ve had since I’ve returned to the church, has been more to do with what a priest has done outside of Mass, except for 2 instances were the nature of the homily seemed ill advised but still relevant…and all those issue involved the same priest.

There was an instance during a wedding Mass that my wife and I found add and we just asked the priest and he answered that it wasn’t included in the wedding Mass…
 
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