I
#2 happened about 10 years ago, again with a summer visitor, only this time in my home parish. I heard a long litany of complaints from a friend about “Fr. Leonard.” I hadn’t encountered him since I attended daily Mass at my work parish. I heard that he had come from missionary work someplace down south - can’t remember - South America, Central America, an island…
Some of my friend’s complaints were that instead of starting precisely at 8:00 AM, he often gabbed in the sacristy and would waltz out at 8:10, 8:15, often causing my friend to have to leave before Communion so she would be able to get to work on time. She also complained that he seemed to make up the Mass as he went along. While she would be complaining to me, I would be thinking, “How bad can he be?”
WELL, where do I begin?
It was Saturday Noon - our parish has a Noon Mass every day in addition to the early morning Masses - so after a restful night’s & late morning’s sleep, I joined my friend for Mass, and who was the celebrant? Fr. L. He was only about 10 minutes late.
The first thing he did was to celebrate the Mass for Sts. Peter & Paul (if I remember correctly). The only problem - it was the Feast of St. Iranaeus (sp?). From there, it only got worse. He seemingly didn’t follow one prayer from the Sacramentary, but made up his own, or ad libbed a bit on what was written. He even stopped in the middle of the Opening Prayer & said, “Isn’t is a shame that we have to stick to these old prayers in the book?”
Then came the homily. He babbled on for an intolerable amount of time & the only thing that I very clearly remember was the phrase “… lay people like us…” :bigyikes:
I turned to my friend and she turned to me. We both silently mouthed the words “lay people like us?” then both said to each other, “Is this guy even a priest???” Since we weren’t sure, we made sure to receive HC from the EMHC since he was distributing HC from a ciborium that had been reserved in the Tabernacle. Neither of us was going to receive whatever “Fr.?” L had “consecrated.”
After Mass, I greeted him warmly, introduced myself, asked him where he was from (originally incardinated in the Rochester, NY, Diocese), and then questioned him about why he had not used the Mass for the Feast of St. Iranaeus. He stared blankly for a second, then said, “Oh him! I like Sts. Peter and Paul so much better. Besides, no one here will be coming tomorrow.” (Might I remind the readers of this post that this Noon Mass is attended by at least 100 people who are giving up part of their busy Saturdays to attend daily Mass. I’m sure they’ll all be going to Sunday Mass!)
I reminded “Fr.” L that even though he might like Peter & Paul better, there are men who devote their entire lives to working on the calendar & the liturgy of the Church & he did not have the authority to juggle feast days around, not to mention his promise of obedience to HMC.
When he realized I was foe not friend, he quickly hurried inside, saying he had to go.
I thought the same thing: I wrote to the Bishop. I told him the complaints I had been told, what I witnessed & the conversation after Mass.
Fortunately, our retired Bishop (Bishop Daily) & I knew each other, so when he received my letter he knew I wasn’t some miscellaneous crank who likes to complain.
While I received a more or less pro forma letter stating that the credentials of all summer visitors are checked by the Diocese, the important thing was “Fr.” L was not seen again!
)
, at least the visting priest tried