Homily on sexual morality

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CilladeRoma said:
Sadly, I am starting to think this thread was a mistake.
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Is it possible you expected people to be more sympathetic to the view that this priest is out of line?

There seem to be a lot issues with this priest than just the homily.

I was at a mass where the homily was about transgenderism. The person in front of me got up and left, saying “I don’t need to hear this sh*t.” I don’t know what she expected.
 
I’m in Houston, Texas (Katy, Texas) and my parish is a rather conservative parish with one pastor and one vicar. We have about 7,000 registered families, it is one of the “big three” in our neighborhood.

The pastor is very pro-life, so though his homilies don’t reflect that as much, he always calls out for pro-live movements and how we support that, both as a church and as parishoners.

The vicar is very pro-God, so through his homilies he has no fear of calling an apple an apple, but that’s where he leaves it, doesn’t pass judgement on the apple, doesn’t discriminate because one is red and another is golden. LOL my metaphor is flying away!

In my parish, direct subjects of pre-marital sex, same-sex unions, divorce and adultery have not been brought up as a direct topic in and of themselves. As previous posters have mentioned, we have had homilies that correlate to the topic of the readings for that Sunday.

CilladeRoma has a valid point as I have seen several catholic churches on the down-scale … meaning the parishioners are dwindling or aging, or both. It must be very difficult for the priests of our church to run the day to day operations of such a huge organization.

Though the topics during the homily may be shocking, I think you will find comfort in that it may not be as shocking as you may think. Imagine the lives of the “ordinary” catholic who gets assailed with porn, immoral codes, and relativistic views from other friends, family, coworkers, and media. I don’t think anything they hear will be a “shocker” … if anything, it will reaffirm that a virtuous moral position is held in esteem and that it’s okay to not to want to be in the “shocker” world of immorality.

In short, in my humble opinion, I think the homily will go over just fine for most folks. You may even be surprised as to how many will show indifference.

Pop Quiz! What is the opposite of LOVE? (and it’s not hate)
 
How is he otherwise? Is he fairly mainstream, progressive, or uber trad?
I guess what I’m asking is:
Will his approach be reasonable, realisitc, and calm?
Or do you expect fire and brimstone?
 
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CilladeRoma said:
Any other thoughts?
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I don’t recall ever hearing a homily like that. I wish I could visit your parish and hear it.

The homily is the place for it, and it relates to the second reading.
CilladeRoma said:
Again, why can’t we teach morality from a positive side- do this, this & this? Not from the negitive side- Don’t do this, this & this.
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We haven’t heard the homily yet. Maybe he will put it in a positive way.

I pray that his message will be on target and well received by all the parishioners.
 
The opposite of love is indifference. When you hate you at least acknowledge the other’s existence. Indifference does not acknowledge the other.
 
If I had to use one of your descriptors, it would be “uber trad”.

We are a pretty conservative parish. Our former priest was pretty mainstream, very pro-life & pro-family, but also very pastoral and kind

This priest is young, a convert, and has immersed himself in many pre-Vatican II traditions. He has literally come in “guns blazing”, and not taken any time to get to know our parish.
 
Seems fine.
It’s on point with the readings and really what he’s done is give advanced warning. Seems good.
Hopefully no one skips this weekend though…
 
Yes.
He changed long standing Holy day Mass times 3 weeks before Christmas. He has told all home bound ministers that their services are no longer required.
And those are just 2 things that I feel comfortable sharing here. And this is all within not quite 3 months of arriving.
There has been a lot of miscommunication and a feeling by some that pastoral needs of the parish are being ignored in favor of his vision of what the parish should be.
 
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Funny story, at least my wife and I think so. We were in a parish early in our marriage where the pastor was named Father Alfred. He had been a cloistered monk who had been pulled out of cloister to be the pastor of our parish, not sure of the backstory. Word was he was not too happy about it. He still wore the full brown monk’s robe with a hood. We were in The South, so it must have gotten hot.

He would always say the 5:00 Mass on Sunday, which he openly called, “The Sinners Mass” because it was the last chance Mass of the weekend. He was dead serious, no irony in his voice. He accused the congregation at that Mass of not tithing enough and not dressing well enough, which was probably true, but hardly the way to correct the situation. He had ushers stand in front of the doors to discourage people from leaving early. He would drag his homilies out for-ev-er.

But here’s the funny and relevant thing. Every week, without fail, he would start the homily on some normal topic: The Gospel that weekend, a letter from the bishop, whatever. But every week, by the time he got up a full head of steam, he would be pounding on the pulpit, yelling about “fornication.” To him, fornicators were everywhere and he probably thought a lot of them came to the Sinner’s Mass. Every week, my wife and I would wonder how he was going to get to fornication from where he started, but he always did.

We would see little kids turning to their parents asking, "Mommy, what does “for-nee-cashion” mean?
 
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The Lutheran church I pass by on my way to mass has a big sign out front, that advertises the sermon topic or series.

If my church did the same with a catchy headline on this week’s topic, we might be surprised at the interest. 🤓 I do hope he’s not going to beat you up, but can preach in a loving way.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
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The reading is such a beautiful one isn’t it?

I will be praying for all our priests that they are able to do justice to it in their homilies, and that the people will not take offence, but will hear the tender voice of God.
 
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CilladeRoma said:
Have any of our priests or Deacon’s preached a homily on this topic?

What where your experiences?
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None of mine have (one made a joke once about how he was going to talk about fornication when one of the readings mentioned it, but it was just a joke). Our pastor, who is an incredibly smart man and definitely not a liberal, was asked about the fact that he had not preached on the subject, and he said that it was an ineffective use of time. Those who want to hear that type of homily already know the teachings and those who don’t tune out when the subject veers there, so he might as well just talk to himself. Instead, his homilies are incredibly practical teachings on practicing our faith in today’s world, applying the lessons of the Gospel to today, to our life today - big picture teachings that everyone can find meaning in. I always think of the sexual morality homilies and other “prescriptive” type messages as being rather like one size fits all pantyhose - in reality, they’re more like one size fits no one.
 
Seems like Bishops love to do this. 😑

I’ve seen priests have nervous breakdowns because of the way they are treated because, you know, the new person is NEVER as good as our old Father So-and-so. Likewise, I’ve seen thriving parishes destroyed by the parishioners who simply will not cooperate with the new priest.

I guess my only advice is…encourage others to give him a chance.

Sometimes people in their great zeal, have no idea they are not exactly reaching their audience.
And sometimes the audience is down-right hostile.

Pray for this priest. He needs it. He needs strength and he needs a better grip on dealing with people if his zeal and scholarship is to be of benefit to the parish.

It might end up being a lot of fuss over nothing.
But if it blows up in his face, the entire parish will be in need of healing attitudes and kind persons in key positions.

He’s not wrong in his preaching, but if they are not used to this approach, he will have a rough time getting through.

Caution people not to allow it to destroy the community. Again, give him every benefit of the doubt.
He’s a priest. He deserves a chance.

You are in a unique position to calm the waters.
 
CilladeRoma said:
Have any of our priests or Deacon’s preached a homily on this topic?

/…/
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I have given homilies and sermons on morality…too many to begin to quantify…but never in a way that the homily had to be rated or children kept away or sent out of the nave

The language is crafted – the marital relationship, marital intimacy – so that it is not awkward; parents with children who ask what did the priest mean by “marital intimacy” can answer “the closeness your mother and I have in our lives together”…or whatever more they choose to say

My homilies on the issue of life, similarly, focus on the Gospel of Life and the sacredness of life from it’s first moment to its natural conclusion – no graphic references to the procedure of abortion
CilladeRoma said:
But that is not what is happening here. New priest. Ordained 3 years. This is his first assignment on his own. He has been with us less than 3 full months and this is just the icing on the cake of changes he has made since being here
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This should be your real concern. The fact that he is so newly ordained and with so little actual experience. This is the situation where feedback needs to be given to the chancery and to the vicar forane/dean of your deanery
CilladeRoma said:
This priest is young, a convert, and has immersed himself in many pre-Vatican II traditions. He has literally come in “guns blazing”, and not taken any time to get to know our parish
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CilladeRoma said:
He has told all home bound ministers that their services are no longer required

And those are just 2 things that I feel comfortable sharing here. And this is all within not quite 3 months of arriving

There has been a lot of miscommunication and a feeling by some that pastoral needs of the parish are being ignored in favor of his vision of what the parish should be
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And this is the fire alarm. Disbanding an established ministry to the home bound because the priest has radical traditionalist tendencies needs to be communicated to the chancery. Not only for the sake of the home bound, who will suffer, but for the sake of the ministers to the home bound, who have been displaced

When I was in our curia, I relied on people calling to tell me precisely issues such as that concerning priests placed temporarily – if there are over 100 parishes, I can’t know details at a micro level without someone informing me. I had no crystal ball. I can see the statistics but it is a parishioner communicating to me what is happening that allows the statistics to speak in a different way and allow me to take action

Being in contact with the dean or a chancery official also gives you what you seem to need…someone who can receive your confidences and offer you advice from a perspective that is not yours or the other parishioners or this young priest

I would also rely on the suggestions and help of the priest friends you mentioned. Believe me, they will understand this situation and have insights of how to help the problem situation come to the surface
 
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Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am fortunate that my priest friends have been of great support.
I do have a relationship with the lead priest in our particular in our area (our diocese covers a pretty big area, so it is divided into smaller areas). I think I will make an appointment with him. If anything, I can share my concerns and the concerns that have been shared with me.
 
What spirit is trying to stop priest from preaching on sexual morality?
 
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