I Need Prayer- Mad at My Bishop

[momof2]

I need a lot of prayers.
I had a situation come up at my Parish this week and it has really angered me and I need advice.
Our parish has been extremely fortunate to have a wonderful priest for 3 years. This man is so in love with God, he is radiant to see. He has brought so many people back to the Church- our Parish has almost doubled in size since his arrival. Everyone could feel the Spirit moving through our little Church! He is the best (human)example of Agape love, and was truly teaching that to us. Our youth group number were astounding. We are a Parish of ~400 families and had over 40 kids in our Confirmation class this year.
Many of us felt he brought the gospels to life and and honestly tried to bring the teachings of Christ to us all. BUT, his biggest stumbling block was our Bishop.
My Bishop seems to think that there is only one way to present things- His way- not God’s way, but HIS way.
This pastor of ours NEVER taught anything against the Catechism ( I am a member of the RCIA team and an Extraordinary minister of the Eucharist), but also thought that the law was made for man and not man for the law.
I have watched my beloved pastor struggle with this Bishop the entire time he has been with us.
This Sunday, the bishop came to our church to tell us that our priest had resigned! Not only that, but- FROM THE PULPIT- told us that this pastor was delusional.
I am so angry with this man that I am having a hard time letting go of my anger.
I am sure that the main reason our pastor left (if it really was his decision to begin with) was due to the grief he received from the Bishop.
Here was a Godly man, serving his Lord in a way that in society does not support, so in love with Jesus that it is infectious, leading teenage boys to the priesthood ( there were 5 boys from 15-18 strongly considering the priesthood due to this priest), but being forced out by a man I feel was threatened by this man’s popularity.
My anger is also fueled because this is not the only priest in my diocese who has left under similar circumstances.
The shortage of priests is hard enough without them getting chased out by this man!
What can I , as a part of the laity, do? Who is the proper authority to discuss these concern with? What is the chain of command?
I feel betrayed by my shepard- this bishop of mine.
Please pray for me.
In my anger, I have felt like leaving the Church.

 

[otm]

1. it is not your issue. It is the priest’s issue, and if he has been wronged, he has Canon law to back him up.
2. do not let your anger fester; that is the work of the devil.
3. from what you describe, I have no way of knowing if the priest was right, wrong, or something else. It is entirley possible that there were issues of which you do not know that prompted the bishop’s decision, and they may well be issues of which you have no business knowing. On the other hand, it may be that the bishop was wrong. Without knowing all the facts, it is very easy to get into a very judgemental mode. But to question this in terms of the bishop being threatened by a priest’s popularity strikes me as looking for an issue. This is something that rarely, if ever occurs. Bishops have an entire diocese to care for, and most of them do not micro manage. The bishop is not affected by a priest’s popularity except for the fact that there is one less problem parish to deal with. I sincerely doubt that tha priest was a threat to the bishop because of his popularity.
4. let go and let God.
5. I must assume that your last comment about leaving the Church over this issue is just a matter of blowing off steam. If it isn’t, then I would seriously question the depth of your faith.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

Any of us who have been around for a while have experienced problems such as you are having. From what you have shared, there is possibly more that is not known. However, the Church that our Lord, Jesus, founded is full of people that are human and have faults. We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Our faith in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is more important than any problems we might encounter. Unfortunately, there are those in the Church who are responsible for others leaving the Church. God will judge them. Jesus talked about harm done to the “Little ones.” He was not talking about children. He was talking about the faithful.

God bless you for your faith,
Deacon Tony SFO

 

[momof2]

Yes, it was blowing off steam! I’m not going to leave the Truth just because of this. It just seems so unfair. A good man with such a love and devotion for God who has brought so many people to God’s love seems to be the victem of a witch hunt.

I saw precious little of God’s compassion from that pulpit.

 

[dhgray]

Deacon Tony560:

Any of us who have been around for a while have experienced problems such as you are having. From what you have shared, there is possibly more that is not known. However, the Church that our Lord, Jesus, founded is full of people that are human and have faults. We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Our faith in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is more important than any problems we might encounter. Unfortunately, there are those in the Church who are responsible for others leaving the Church. God will judge them. Jesus talked about harm done to the “Little ones.” He was not talking about children. He was talking about the faithful.

God bless you for your faith,
Deacon Tony SFO

Deacon is right…we only know part of the story. Please do not read into it. Pray for the Father and for the Bishop.

 

[Exporter]

Momof2,

Your priest did an exceptional job of building up your church and had a great influence on the youth. Obviously he influenced you.

WHAT STIKES ME AS VERY ODD IS: The Bishop came to your church and said, in public, that the Priest WAS DELUSIONAL!

That was a nonprofessional act. The Bishop was saying that the Priest was not able to see reality for he was in a nonreal world.

He, the Bishop, should not have intimated the Priest was a bit “off his rocker”. Is the Bishop a certified psychiatrist?

 

[HumbleSinner]

I need a lot of prayers.
I had a situation come up at my Parish this week and it has really angered me and I need advice.
Our parish has been extremely fortunate to have a wonderful priest for 3 years. This man is so in love with God, he is radiant to see. He has brought so many people back to the Church- our Parish has almost doubled in size since his arrival. Everyone could feel the Spirit moving through our little Church! He is the best (human)example of Agape love, and was truly teaching that to us. Our youth group number were astounding. We are a Parish of ~400 families and had over 40 kids in our Confirmation class this year.
Many of us felt he brought the gospels to life and and honestly tried to bring the teachings of Christ to us all. BUT, his biggest stumbling block was our Bishop.
My Bishop seems to think that there is only one way to present things- His way- not God’s way, but HIS way.
This pastor of ours NEVER taught anything against the Catechism ( I am a member of the RCIA team and an Extraordinary minister of the Eucharist), but also thought that the law was made for man and not man for the law.
I have watched my beloved pastor struggle with this Bishop the entire time he has been with us.
This Sunday, the bishop came to our church to tell us that our priest had resigned! Not only that, but- FROM THE PULPIT- told us that this pastor was delusional.
I am so angry with this man that I am having a hard time letting go of my anger.
I am sure that the main reason our pastor left (if it really was his decision to begin with) was due to the grief he received from the Bishop.
Here was a Godly man, serving his Lord in a way that in society does not support, so in love with Jesus that it is infectious, leading teenage boys to the priesthood ( there were 5 boys from 15-18 strongly considering the priesthood due to this priest), but being forced out by a man I feel was threatened by this man’s popularity.
My anger is also fueled because this is not the only priest in my diocese who has left under similar circumstances.
The shortage of priests is hard enough without them getting chased out by this man!
What can I , as a part of the laity, do? Who is the proper authority to discuss these concern with? What is the chain of command?
I feel betrayed by my shepard- this bishop of mine.
Please pray for me.
In my anger, I have felt like leaving the Church.

What do you think the underlying reason was for your bishop to do this? Why did he say he was delusional?

 

[otm]

Exporter:

Momof2,

Your priest did an exceptional job of building up your church and had a great influence on the youth. Obviously he influenced you.

WHAT STIKES ME AS VERY ODD IS: The Bishop came to your church and said, in public, that the Priest WAS DELUSIONAL!

That was a nonprofessional act. The Bishop was saying that the Priest was not able to see reality for he was in a nonreal world.

He, the Bishop, should not have intimated the Priest was a bit “off his rocker”. Is the Bishop a certified psychiatrist?

Probably not. However, as I and the Deacon said, there may be more to this than meets the eye. Might it just be possible that a board certified psychiatrist has been involved?

Perhaps not. Perhaps the bisop is removing this priest for other issues, which may be right or wrong.

The bottom line is that we don’t know the facts, have not heard from the priest, and are guessing.

The bishop may have handled the situation well. He may have handled it in a tactless manner, but was correct in his actions. He may have been wrong for his reasons of removal and lied to the parish. We simply do not have enough facts at this point to accuse the bishop of wrongdoing.

We have had a situation in our diocese in which a priest in a parish seemed to have been well accepted by the parish, and was crazy as a March hare. He, too, was removed, and I know that some parishoners were quite upset with the removal.

 

[klbarrett]

otm:

Probably not. However, as I and the Deacon said, there may be more to this than meets the eye. Might it just be possible that a board certified psychiatrist has been involved?

Perhaps not…

I would hope that a board-certified psychiatrist was NOT involved, because if he was, and the bishop is standing in the pulpit divulging a medical diagnosis, which is confidential, then he would be violating privacy laws. Not a very bright thing for the bishop to have done…whether it was a medical diagnosis or not. Because calling someone delusional, when it’s not a medical diagnosis, would be kind of…slanderous, perhaps? Would tarnish the priest’s reputation, could cause irreparable harm…? No, doesn’t sound like the bishop did a very smart thing. I don’t care what the underlying story is, that was simply inappropriate. I don’t cut the bishop any slack for that one.

 

[springbreeze]

Dear friend

One thing is very clear to me here, you do not have full possession of all of the facts nor of the full truth of the situation.

It is always the case that the church will withold information from the laity that is of a sensitive nature and is not of any purpose but to possibly cause scandal and gossip, though the church forgets that people gossip anyways and then form even worse and untrue ideas about things and situations. I am sure the church is aware that this is the case, that people speculate and come to their own conclusions until told otherwise.

Dear friend, I cannot give you any other solution to this but to remain faithful to the church, abide in the church in obedience to Her and finally accept that this Priest has gone and your Parish will continue to flourish and grow, because that is what Christ Jesus desires. Go onwards and upwards, do not look back, there is no past only the present, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and do not worry about things you are not privvy to.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Madaglan]

Originally Quoted by otm:

1. do not let your anger fester; that is the work of the devil.

I think that her anger is justified if indeed the priest is who she says he is, and if the bishop defamed him by calling him “delusional” when he is not; but I agree with your word, “fester,” in that it implies anger in itself is not bad unless it is unwarranted or one dwells too heavily on it.