How much authority and power do you personally give a priest

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I read the OP. There is absolutely nothing there that indicates that the person is giving the priest authority that belongs to God.

Is there a possibility that some ‘rogue priest’ is going to nefariously prey on his parishoners?

Is what you’re worried about the 1 in a million possibility so that you’re ignoring the 999,999,999 priests who give good advice when asked?
 
redcatholic said:
Discussing this on another thread I’m currious. A common answer on here is “go ask your priest” so how much authority do you yield to your priest with your own personal life, your marriage, your children, your soul, your consciences, and ultimately your beliefs and faith. And was that authority earned or is it by nature of ordination.
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I’ve always wondered about that recommendation myself. I’ve met plenty of priests who I wouldn’t trust to give sage advice-or to necessarily recite the teachings of the church correctly. But I’ve also met wonderful, knowledgeable, and devout priests who I would trust. But since they should be better overall than most other counselors IMO, I’d tell a stranger to speak with a priest but to still be discerning; don’t turn your brain off just because he’s a priest IOW.
 
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redcatholic said:
This is so odd to me. I’ve worked in a parish office I’m good friends with the priest who married us. I can day with certainty that my “parish” has zero contact with my geographical parish in regards to any sacraments at all. Zero. My geographical parish has changed over the years. (Most people move) and only once, (my second daughter’s first communion in another state did they contact my former parish. But even then it wasn’t our former “geographical” parish. My geographical parish. Would have no record of my name, my address, my religious affiliation, my sacraments etc. are you saying that the priest In my “registered” parish does not have the authority to do what he has done for my family?
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Some dioceses in the United States have chosen to ignore canon law in this regard. In my Archdiocese, everyone child receiving their first Sacraments must receive them in their territorial parish (or personal parish). Everyone getting married must have the permission of the territorial parish pastor to marry outside the parish.

However, in the diocese I was born in, they only use territorial parish boundaries for catholic school tuition discounts & for bringing the Eucharist to the homebound. Otherwise, that diocese ignores the cannon.

But regardless, the parish where your records are kept is in the parish where you where you first your first sacrament (whether Baptism or something else).
 
redcatholic said:
This whole thread is really about this idea that we say go ask a priest a lot. When that seems to place an unfair burden on priests when half the time people aren’t asking us to preform sacraments, but rather just need to properly form their conscience and education.
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I sometimes agree with you here tbh. There is also tone and charity to consider. Act with charity and people will consider it.

I think the faith rules are important…vital really, we can’t compromise. However there is also the daily faith experience, the life. I think as a faith community we should jump in more often to offer constructive advice. And I think we need to support our priests more.

To your thoughts though. As a Catholic there is some real benefit to have a good priest involved. There is a sense of impartiality, experience, and doctrinal understanding, that’s impossible to replicate. A good priest can really cut to the core of many issues and have an even life changing impact in the life of the person. I think it was Carl Jung, a famous psychologist, who said (paraphrased) “if my patients went to confession I would lose 99% of them”. A priest can bring a level of understanding and accuracy that can be hard to get otherwise.

In short I think the faithful should engage a bit more. We need to respect our priests more, and I would love to see the faithful take mire of the administrative or clerical types of roles to free up clergy to focus on spiritual things. But when it really counts, a good priest is absolutely irreplaceable.
 
I really get that. No one should make the “is it a sin” determination on this site. I suppose we can point out and discuss the requirements for sin. We can discuss what the Church teaches.
I guess I just don’t get some of it. Maybe once in my life have I ever asked a priest if something was a sin. I confess all mortal sins, I formed my conscience well and don’t need to discuss with a priest IF I sinned but rather only go to them WHEN I have sinned. I know enough priest to say with confidence that many of them don’t have some kind of supernatural ability or wisdom when it comes to many of these issues. I guess what I’m saying is that to me the hands are consecrated But the opinions may not be!
 
That’s an interesting stat there. And telling about your level of bias.
 
Fauken said:
This forum is for apologetics. It is not to substitute pastoral counseling, which is a policy of this site…
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I agree 1000 % with what Fauken said.

I would really like to see the "Help, is this a sin? " posts just get banned permanently, unless the person is asking from an apologetics standpoint, e.g. the Council of Trent said X and Vatican 2 said Y so in light of the conflicting viewpoints, is Z a sin. Unfortunately, I don’t run the place or make the rules.
 
redcatholic said:
Which parish? The geographical parish priest
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The pastor of your parish, which is always either your territorial parish OR a personal parish (rare, such as a Polish parish for example) is always your pastor.

Registration or mass attendance at a parish do not make someone your pastor.
 
redcatholic said:
I guess I just don’t get some of it. Maybe once in my life have I ever asked a priest if something was a sin. I confess all mortal sins, I formed my conscience well and don’t need to discuss with a priest IF I sinned but rather only go to them WHEN I have sinned. I know enough priest to say with confidence that many of them don’t have some kind of supernatural ability or wisdom when it comes to many of these issues. I guess what I’m saying is that to me the hands are consecrated But the opinions may not be!
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Some of them don’t have well-informed consciences. Some of them actually looking for an excuse not to confess their sin and that they actually didn’t do anything wrong (I remember one masturbation thread where the poster claimed it wasn’t a sin because (s)he wasn’t having lustful thoughts at the time and was quite adamant about it). But forming one’s conscience is not an apologetical concern. When a child has a question about something, they ask their parents. Our priests are our spiritual fathers. They are the ones trained, equipped, and given the task to help us in that. Just like biological fathers aren’t right all the time, neither are priests, but that doesn’t mean dad has any less a duty to raise his children or that it’s okay for other adults to do his job for him. Another adult, for instance, cannot spank another person’s child, even if that child did something wrong in front of them (like stealing).
 
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See that’s really the problem. In your diocese it works one way but in another it does not. If I divorced my wife and sought an annulment our geographical parish when we got married or even right now would never ever be contacted. Because they have nothing to contact for. But it was stated the person with authority is the priest of the geographical parish. Ok, maybe where you are, but you can’t make that statement for other places.
 
redcatholic said:
This is so odd to me. I’ve worked in a parish office I’m good friends with the priest who married us. I can day with certainty that my “parish” has zero contact with my geographical parish in regards to any sacraments at all. Zero. My geographical parish has changed over the years. (Most people move) and only once, (my second daughter’s first communion in another state did they contact my former parish. But even then it wasn’t our former “geographical” parish. My geographical parish. Would have no record of my name, my address, my religious affiliation, my sacraments etc. are you saying that the priest In my “registered” parish does not have the authority to do what he has done for my family?
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Depends on what “he has done”. If it’s day to day service such as Mass, Confession, advice, etc., then those are not matters of jurisdiction and he is well qualified to help you. But if you went to him for a dispensation from Mass, you cannot validly get it. That power belongs to your pastor.

I wouldn’t know your inter-parish dynamics; it’s possible the Bishop has already implemented some particular law dispensing with canonical requirements, or because the diocese itself maintains records such that any parish can canonically serve baptisms and marriages regardless of residence but again if that’s the case, it’s because universal canon law governs these things by default.

But that’s getting beside the point. The point I’m trying to make is that the pastor has some authority over his parishioners that not all priests have (e.g. dispensations, marriage outside either party’s parish cf. canon 1115), all priests have authority over all the faithful in the diocese in some matters (e.g. binding a penance in Confession; withholding Communion under canon 915). And for normal laymen, priests exercise NO authority over your family life. That belongs to the husband.
 
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stpurl said:
The priest certainly has authority given to him by Jesus, doesn’t he? We don’t confect the Eucharist as lay people. We cannot perform exorcisms, hear confessions and absolve people; the priest does that.

Again, people WILL complicate things by insisting that it’s either-or instead of both-and.

The priest does not ‘take authority away from Jesus’, he exercises any authority he might have as a spiritual confessor, guide, or pastor through Jesus.

The two are not in opposition.
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The only issue I’d have is that a rogue or liberal priest with unorthodox views still qualifies to celebrate the sacraments.
 
redcatholic said:
. I can day with certainty that my “parish” has zero contact with my geographical parish in regards to any sacraments at all. Zero
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Which doesn’t change the law of the Church. It’s unfortunate that parishes would ignore the law of the Church.
 
It’s not really a law if it isn’t followed now is it? Like it’s a hanging offense to steal a horse in my state.
 
redcatholic said:
I really get that. No one should make the “is it a sin” determination on this site. I suppose we can point out and discuss the requirements for sin. We can discuss what the Church teaches.
I guess I just don’t get some of it. Maybe once in my life have I ever asked a priest if something was a sin. I confess all mortal sins, I formed my conscience well and don’t need to discuss with a priest IF I sinned but rather only go to them WHEN I have sinned. I know enough priest to say with confidence that many of them don’t have some kind of supernatural ability or wisdom when it comes to many of these issues. I guess what I’m saying is that to me the hands are consecrated But the opinions may not be!
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Well, that’s because your conscience is well-formed and functioning normally.

With the scrupulous, I know enough that it’s useless to train them on the requirements for sin. They already know that, for the most part. We send them to “ask their priest” because we want them to (1) get face to face advice; (2) trust his priest; and (3) obey unconditionally.

When the scrupulous come here, they risk making their scrupulosity worse because they get a whole mishmash of answers.

That is when we give the “go ask your priest” stock answer.

On the other thread, “ask your priest” was a pretty useless answer.
 
Sometimes this is common but it may not be limited to liberal priests. I’ve personally had priests try to counsel me to use birth control, I’ve had them tell me masturbation is ok. On the flip side some priests might suggest someone have relations when they don’t want to etc. and that’s kind of the reason I cringe when a blanket answer is “go ask your priest” on some of these issues. I’m generally interested in how other Catholics defer authority and education to priests where they live. There are certain priests I definitely tell my kids that I have the spiritual authority not fr do and so who is speaking wrongly.
 
The problem s also severe because the answer may be good for a scrupulous person but we must keep in mind that thousands of people (millions or billions) actually can read those threads and get the wrong idea about sin or the function of a priest!
 
redcatholic said:
Because they have nothing to contact for. But it was stated the person with authority is the priest of the geographical parish. Ok, maybe where you are, but you can’t make that statement for other places.
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Well… the person with the authority IS the priest of the geographic parish. That is by canon law. The problem is that some bishops/dioceses are breaking canon law. They are doing something they should not be doing.

The theology of the Church says that every human on the planet (not each Catholic, but each person) is under the auspices of only 1 Bishop and 1 priest. Both are based on where you live. Your Bishop is the ordinary of geographic diocese (or other kind of administrative unit) you live in & your priest is the parish priest or chaplain (aka pastor) of the parish or mission you geographically live in. (Personal parishes are the only exception to this).

Some dioceses unofficially treat Catholics not attending their territorial parish in a similar way to personal parishes. But this is not consistent with canon law, as a personal parish is not a territorial parish.

If you seek out an annulment, technically (according to Cannon Law), you should be contacting your territorial parish. If your records are not at your territorial parish, they will ask you where your records are kept, and they will update your records.

NOTE: Your sacramental records are never moved from whether they are first created.
 
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