Homily on sexual morality

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Our priest talks about these sorts of sins all the time in homilies-- abortion, adultery, contraception, fornication, homosexual sex/marriage.

No he doesn’t “warn people” ahead of time. And, we don’t have any children’s liturgy… so kids are in church. He isn’t graphic, but he’s clear about sixth commandment sins plus abortion.

Never heard any complaint from anyone.

My husband teaches confirmation, and we’re very clear with the kids on moral teachings of the Church including contraception. Never had a complaint or phone call or parent issue.
 
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I taught CCD for a period of time and was constantly amazed at the Catholic teachings that kids had never heard of. Maybe they need to hear those homilies.
 
Funny true story from when I was in “young adults” group in a major metro area. We had a retreat. YAs ages maybe 25-35ish in this group. At the retreat we had a priest come to hear confessions. We had an examination of conscience sheet for the YAs (I was a YA, BTW, it was a self-led sort of retreat, planned and implemented by YAs for YAs)… in the deathly quiet chapel at the Catholic retreat center you suddenly hear…

gasp… indrawn breath… that’s a SIN??? in a loud voice from one of the girls reading the examination of conscience sheet…

yeah, she was pretty embarrassed…
 
We get quite a few homilies on abortion, and the occasional mention of cheating on one’s spouse being bad.

Priests don’t touch other sexual stuff in the homily for the most part. Maybe they should. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to bring it up.

I think the priest did the right thing by putting out an advance “content warning” so people would know not to bring their kids, but I have absolutely no idea, zero, why anyone would be complaining about a priest preaching on sexual morality from the altar. Unless of course he got up there and said it was fine to fornicate and so forth and then I would expect the complaints to come AFTER the homily.

I would wonder exactly why people are complaining? Maybe Father hit a nerve there? Maybe they have some stuff they should be confessing, hmmm? If they are sinless in this regard then it should not be any problem to sit through a homily.
 
My former priest did and it didn’t go well at all.

He didn’t last two years as administrator of the parish.

Jim
 
Heck, when I taught Confirmation Classes to 11th grade high-school kids, I was shocked to learn that many had never made 1st Penance.

The parish had an abusive policy of having First Communion in 2nd grade and putting off first Penance until 4th grade. As a result, their parents took them to CCD for to receive 1st Communion, but never 1st Penance.

That has changed recently, but always bothered me.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Heck, when I taught Confirmation Classes to 11th grade high-school kids, I was shocked to learn that many had never made 1st Penance.

The parish had an abusive policy of having First Communion in 2nd grade and putting off first Penance until 4th grade. As a result, their parents took them to CCD for to receive 1st Communion, but never 1st Penance.

That has changed recently, but always bothered me.

Jim
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that’s crazy!!! You gotta have 1st confession before 1st communion.
 
What about the people who don’t take a bulletin? Those who were not at Mass last week? What about visitors?

This is just an imprudent decision.
 
Our priest actually had a homily last week about the family (since it was the feast of the Holy Family). He brought up how families should act and the interaction between husband and wife. He got into the sexual act but did not go into grisly detail. There is a way to talk about such things without freaking out the young kiddos who have never heard it before. He used terms that adults would understand and that kids would not. Terms such as the “physical act”, “intimacy” and such.

Basically, there are ways to talk about these sensitive issues without getting graphic.
 
Upon reflecting more deeply on your post, at the time the Church pedophile scandal hit, one of our priests, a very intelligent and no-nonsense type of guy, gave us updates in the homily on what was going on. Very fair, not shielding the Church but being very truthful.
It was painful to listen to with my kiddos, but they were too little to be paying attention.

But that was the closest I over got to a priest talking about sexual matters in the homily.

I appreciated his honesty, but would have gone to a mass he wasn’t preaching at with my kids.

So that’s why I like your priest’s content warning.

But OTOH, people might have work commitments or stuff that his Mass is the only one they can get to.

Maybe he can preach but in a non-graphic manner.
I don’t know.

:pray:t2::pray:t2::pray:t2: for the priest and your parish
 
Thank you for this. I appreciate everyone’s (name removed by moderator)ut.
I was surprised to see so many harsh responses. I don’t discount the need for this, I am just concerned that this is a new, young priest, who has come in “guns blazing”. He has made many changes in the few months he’s been with us, and never really got to know us as a parish.

Hence the reason I am looking for experiences.
 
Jesus Christ called people names. Hypocrites, fools, evildoers etc…
 
Jesus is God and knows the hearts of men.
Or are you saying you have the same quality?
 
This is one of those times I find myself in agreement with whyeyeman.

If you hear the church teaching and make the decision for whatever reason to continue with what you’re doing, at least somebody told you what the official position of the church was in no uncertain terms.

It may just jolt a few people who are wavering or confused or not thinking or didn’t learn straight out of their stupor.

I am not sure what hearing such a sermon at a younger age would have done for me, and the world may never know, because I never heard one, but it’s an interesting concept for me to ponder, whether I would have kept on committing various sins out of the lot if a priest had simply gotten up there and laid down the law.
 
CilladeRoma said:
No, it is not irrelevant. The Church needs contributions to run. Our parish is already running in the red, I am afraid this is going to make things worse.
I am not suggesting that he not tell the truth, what I am suggesting is that there is a time and place, and I don’t think the homily is that time or place.
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Well, I am curious what the right time and place would be?
 
It’s a darn shame when a priest is not allowed to bring up serious sins because people might quit giving to the collection.

If St. John Vianney had thought that way, he would not be a saint today and would not have saved all those souls.
 
Out of curiosity is the preaching effective i.e. any stats on the sexual teachings of the Church being followed in your parish as opposed to places where it is not preached about?
 
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