I have a very disturbing situation

[Newbie2]

I agree Newbie!!
But if there is gonna be stones thrown then the matther should be looked into a bit more by Michcool125 dont you think??

Absolutely. What I see so far is something out of the ordinary, just a wee bit suspicious.

The fact that you are so quick to judge this priest (Regardless of your protestations of the opposite) just shows where your mind lays.

…don’t just make assumptions based on SPAM.

Where (our) mind lays? Um…perhaps some of us are thinking about the recent exposing (no pun intended) of the cover-ups of priestly abuses, and are sensitized to these kind of things. Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire…the question here is whether or not there’s smoke.

Assumptions? Aren’t you **assuming **that this is spam?

I
Further, you may open yourself to a charge of libel if you spread false rumors about this priest. .

I don’t think anyone in this thread is suggesting that unsubstantiated accusations be made or rumors started.

If you’re going to say anything to the bishop, why don’t you ask if the diocese has some recommendations for blocking e-mail spam? This will both give them the chance to deal with what is most likely the real problem (the spam), and put them on notice that there is another potential problem. It’s easy enough for a knowledegable person to verify when the problem is spam, and when it’s something worse.

.

Now that is a good idea!

 

[Matt_Collins]

Assumptions? Aren’t you **assuming **that this is spam?

Yes! And that’s what we should all do. Assume the best about people until there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. This isn’t closing our eyes to the truth. Rather, it’s ordinary Christian charity. A single spam message is hardly “clear and convincing evidence.”

I get over 10,000 spam message a month, most of which are filtered by gmail, but at least 5 a day slip through. I would hate to have anyone on my jury who would be willing to ruin someone’s life based on such flimsy evidence.

Several years ago we lived next to a man we suspected might be a child molester. Our suspicions were based on what we perceived as an inordinate interest in our children and other children. But we never witnessed anything that could be used to convict him. We watched him like a hawk. We took every precaution we could to protect our kids, but never took any action to harm his reputation. Eventually we found out we were right. But we have no qualms of conscience about not reporting him because we simply did not have any evidence. It was a suspicion only. A suspicion that turned out to be right, but still a suspicion.

And that’s all the OP has here. A suspicion. The proper response is to keep his eyes and ears open, but his mouth shut until there is real evidence.

 

[LittleOne1]

A Christian who practices mercy must assume what this priest says is true until evidence to the opposite. I would say that you could tell the priest that you did notice that he has a bad spam problem and suggest a better program or filters to protect him from that.
That being said, you may have one piece of evidence and that is the fact that he still had them in his inbox. If I get spam, I delete it immediately. Also, one would think a person like this would quickly look into spam blockade if he had this problem to avoid temptation. It is hard to say, but lean towards him being truthful and suggest he find some good blocking software. If anything, let him know that you are worried that others would get the wrong impression of him if he left this “spam” on his computer. If he gets rather defensive, this might warrant seeing the Bishop at this point because even if he is not definitely looking at porn, it may show he is struggling in some way and need spiritual help at this point.

 

[Newbie2]

.

And that’s all the OP has here. A suspicion. The proper response is to keep his eyes and ears open, but his mouth shut until there is real evidence.

Yep.

A Christian who practices mercy must assume what this priest says is true until evidence to the opposite. I would say that you could tell the priest that you did notice that he has a bad spam problem and suggest a better program or filters to protect him from that.
That being said, you may have one piece of evidence and that is the fact that he still had them in his inbox. If I get spam, I delete it immediately. Also, one would think a person like this would quickly look into spam blockade if he had this problem to avoid temptation. It is hard to say, but lean towards him being truthful and suggest he find some good blocking software. If anything, let him know that you are worried that others would get the wrong impression of him if he left this “spam” on his computer. If he gets rather defensive, this might warrant seeing the Bishop at this point because even if he is not definitely looking at porn, it may show he is struggling in some way and need spiritual help at this point.

Another good response. I thought it was going in another direction until I got past the first sentence.

 

[BSHoop96]

A Christian who practices mercy must assume what this priest says is true until evidence to the opposite. I would say that you could tell the priest that you did notice that he has a bad spam problem and suggest a better program or filters to protect him from that.
That being said, you may have one piece of evidence and that is the fact that he still had them in his inbox. If I get spam, I delete it immediately. Also, one would think a person like this would quickly look into spam blockade if he had this problem to avoid temptation. It is hard to say, but lean towards him being truthful and suggest he find some good blocking software. If anything, let him know that you are worried that others would get the wrong impression of him if he left this “spam” on his computer. If he gets rather defensive, this might warrant seeing the Bishop at this point because even if he is not definitely looking at porn, it may show he is struggling in some way and need spiritual help at this point.

**Originally Posted by Nan S **If you’re going to say anything to the bishop, why don’t you ask if the diocese has some recommendations for blocking e-mail spam? This will both give them the chance to deal with what is most likely the real problem (the spam), and put them on notice that there is another potential problem. It’s easy enough for a knowledegable person to verify when the problem is spam, and when it’s something worse.

I think both of these are very sensible suggestions. Yes, give him the benefit of the doubt but as we all know that sometimes turns into a disaster so you have to keep your eyes and ears open. And you never know, if you did have to discreetly contact the Bishop it might help him make a hard decision too. What if other people had discreetly contacted him about other situations regarding this priest and it finally got to the point where he decided to investigate in the best interest of everyone.
You can’t assume because he is a wonderful priest that it is impossible for him to have another side to him. It has happened before. Wha a horrible situation for the OP to find himself in. I believe him and I believe he is struggling to do the right thing.

 

[Kathrin]

And: Pray about it.
I’ll say a prayer right now too.

Kathrin

 

[CB_Catholic]

Give the priest the benefit of the doubt. When I had my old computer I thought my husband was going to these sites, and then I started to get this stuff. Then the porn took over the whole computer (I had a virus) and I could not be on it for 5 minutes without pornographic materials suddenly appearing on my computer screen. It was disgusting and my hard drive finally crashed. My son-in-law, whose field is computers, had tried unsuccessfully to get this stuff off of it, but to no avail. I had to buy a new computer, and my security is set very high and I never get this stuff anymore.

 

[peary]

Hello all,

I’ve been reading this site for quite awhile now, and recently I had a very shocking event happen to where it forced me to make a user name and start becoming active in these forums. I Hope this is the right place to post this.

Anyways, I’ve meet this new priest a few months ago. He was different, he was wise a witty, funny, smart, understanding. He went out of his was to donate to the poor, argue with the bishop who said he gave away to much money, etc. This priest was golden, I thought.

However, a few days ago I was working on his computer to help him with email troubles he said he’s been having. Well, I was adding his old email to his outlook when there were a few messages (only three) and I glanced at what it said, and it said something about how it failed to receive the correct information for his order on “camboys” and their was were pictures of naked guys. He proceeded to saying he has such a problem with spam, but I can’t understand how it’s spam when it identifies your name saying they had trouble processing the order. I’ve just been feeling like i’ve been hit in the guy for over a few days now. It’s like, if I can’t trust him, who can I trust?

Give him the benefit of the doubt. I too have had ridiculous spam claiming that I have ordered things from such-and-such a place and it didn’t go through, and they needed more information (such as your SS, or bank no.) both of which I refuse to give. There was an E-Bay one going around and I had to contact the company which responded that it was bogus. Remember, the devil never sleeps, and, according to the bible, Satan has been given power over the air (which, for me, includes TV, radio, movies, and now, the internet). He could be a very good priest and emnity has been put between you and him in a most insidious way. Pray for him and pray to St. Michael.