I know another priest that took a leave of absence to care for a terminally ill parent.My point is, don’t assume anything about a leave of absence. There are a lot of reasons and many of them are very legitimate.
You know, I think I would find myself feeling betrayed if I was one of the priest’s parishioners and that it’d a take a while for me to get over feeling that way. I can see that is a situation that would require a lot of prayer both for the shepherd as well as the flock. Hopefully it won’t become messy (messier) and that everyone will all be to able to discern and understand the will of the Holy Spirit.The one I have in mind is doing it because of a vocational crisis. He’s trying to figure out what God is really calling him to - priesthood or marriage. I wonder how many who leave under these circumstances actually return.
Not this one. He does every word and gesture in the Mass perfectly. For heaven’s sake, he bows his head at the mention of the name of the Saint of the day. I’ll bet most priests don’t even know that’s supposed to be done.That’s a toughie, but at least he had the fortitude to take a leave of absence and seek the Lord over it.
Perhaps this is when some of the more extreme abuses occur–an uncertain priest has a chip on his shoulder, or a case of resentment against his calling, and instead of taking a leave and devoting himself to prayer and discernment, instead he acts out and takes on authority that he doesn’t possess and makes “improvements” in the Mass. Eventually he is challenged over the abuses, and this makes him angry and gives him an excuse to walk away from the priesthood and sometimes even the Catholic Church. He can claim that he was “driven out.”
Sad scenaria, isn’t it? And I’m guessing it happens.
Exactly what I’ve planned already to say to him if I ever see him again. After I smack him upside the head and say “What are you thinking???”This priest certainly has a crisis, since, for him (and all priests) the time of discernment is long past!
The years in the Seminary is the time for discernment. That ends when he accepts his bishop’s invitation to be ordained.
If God was calling him to the vocation of marriage, once he is ordained a priest that then becomes his vocation, regardless of what God was calling him to before. We can make errors in our discernment, but once the decision is made, whatever we have chosen then becomes our vocation.
What this priest needs is to accept that, now that he is a priest, he needs to stop thinking “what if I made the wrong decision” and dedicate himself totally to being a priest. This is his path to holiness.