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GRATEFULONEjim
Guest
What can I do to help a young Priest who is being led astray and tempted by woman?
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ad_altare_Dei
Guest
First thing, tell the women that they are putting him in compromising and difficult situations. You could phrase it like this, “Hey, back off. He’s not into you.”
If it’s more his doing, then it gets pretty messy.
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Scoobyshme
Guest
Have you tried having a chat with him and telling him you’re being scandalized? If that doesn’t work, go talk to the bishop. Be polite, respectful, but to the point. It talks quite a bit of resources and time to train a priest. We don’t need them wandering off. They need to live their vocation and be faithful to their vows.
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Joe_Kelley
Guest
But most of all pray for him.
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joandarc2008
Guest
I have a situation in my parish where my priest has surrounded himself with liberals and no longer teaches the faith with dogmas, doctrines,and traditions. That is as far as I want to mention on a public board. The small group of us that have noticed have decided to put together a chritable letter why he is on vacation and I have been asked to bring it to him upon his return or even possibly have the visiting priest present it to him upon his return about how much we need him as our shepherd to shepherd his flock and not to lead us astray. In other words charitably remind him of his Holy Orders the same way he counsels us on our marriage vocation. And yes, it has gotten to a crisis point where even the children in the parish are looking at things going on in homilies and saying “I don’t think that is right.”
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TP2
Guest
Tell the priest he needs to get some help. If that doesn’t help write to his bishop. What’s so hard about this? Folks…try not making a mountain out of a mole hill. Ok?
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TP2
Guest
Your situation is more complicated. You need take him aside and talk to him. If he does not listen, talk to His bishop. Then if no change happens, write to The Holy See’s Representative in Wa, DC. And pray. Meanwhile, find another parish that does teach The faith in Purity but don’t stop the actions I listed above.
Make sure that while writing to The Bishop first you document everything illicitly being performed or taught, clearly. Hope that helps…
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jmcrae
Guest
Pray for him, and let him know that you are praying for him. If possible, engage him in his priestly office as often as possible - for example, ask him to bless your Rosary, ask him to give you a blessing, ask him to say a Mass for this or that intention, etc. Pick him out to go to Confession, and then tell him that you so appreciate his gifts in this area. Keep him busy with his priestly ministry, and show your appreciation of it. He may be lonely - make sure he knows he’s appreciated as a priest.
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joandarc2008
Guest
Thank you TP2 - it does - we just want to make sure all charitable actions are taken first - I even tried first with our DRE - that ended up in a knock down drag out string of Cafeteria Catholic vs Real Catholic apologetic emails. The scary part is she is in ministry and I am not. For now I will stick to writing for Catholic News and doing the type of ministry I do. One of our EHMC said she realized the other day that the reason she had not signed up to serve in a while was over this.Your situation is more complicated. You need take him aside and talk to him. If he does not listen, talk to His bishop. Then if no change happens, write to The Holy See’s Representative in Wa, DC. And pray. Meanwhile, find another parish that does teach The faith in Purity but don’t stop the actions I listed above.
Make sure that while writing to The Bishop first you document everything illicitly being performed or taught, clearly. Hope that helps…
I do refuse to leave my Parish. You have to understand. We are in a small town. We would have to go 25-30 miles one way or the other. My dh is a leader of the community in his position. It is tough to teach ethics and morals to kids (martial arts) and not teach what is right and stand up for it. It is also wrong to leave the kids of the parents that don’t know any better to suffer through it. You know Lk 17:2? The ole millstone?
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TP2
Guest
Not enough. Cut through the chase. The devil is smarter than that. A priest can do all kinds of things. It doesn’t stop temptation and if he doesn’t remove himself from the situation completely, he will fall hard. And the parish will suffer.
Go to him. Be direct. If it doesn’t help, go to his Bishop. Do you do the same with your children when they are causing problems for themselves and others? Do you placate the situation with positive reinforcements ONLY? That’s working in reverse. You need to head off the situation… yesterday.
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TP2
Guest
See, the problem you are encountering is a Scandal of Faith perpetuated by a misguided Priest and satan is having a ball…! If the priest has already hired people who are “Unplugged” to Church teaching, you need to Write all your concerns to your local Ordinariate (Bishop). If you cannot leave for another Parish because of the distance then you need to be talking to the Bishop at this point. That is Charitable. It saves souls. By not writing to the local Ordinariate, you are being Uncharitable. I know of Lk 17. There is also **Matthew 18: 15-18. **
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jmcrae
Guest
The best way to do that is to keep him so busy being a priest that he literally hasn’t got time for this woman.
Hopefully that’s already been done. If the congregation is already aware of his behaviour, then so is his Bishop.
Actually, yes, I mostly control the children through positive reinforcement, and only bring out the punishments when it’s clear that the child is simply being rebellious, and not just “being a kid.” Remind them of the rule, first - get them busy doing good things - and then if (and only if) the bad behaviour persists, then we start having time-outs, and privileges removed.Do you do the same with your children when they are causing problems for themselves and others? Do you placate the situation with positive reinforcements ONLY? That’s working in reverse. You need to head off the situation… yesterday.
I think I spanked one kid, once, a really long time ago.
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joandarc2008
Guest
Rereading Matthew again we are at the point where now it is time for the group to speak to him. This group was hired long before I moved down here. I am the New Kid. He is the old one. We have lost good people. We also just got a new Archbishop. Under the old Archbishop the complaint just got sent back to the Parish priest to deal with and the parishioner got bounced out of the parishioner and in a small town that is not good for business. So yes I would like to put it in writing to him and ask him to change his ways of doing things - if possible I would like tohave a priest or deacon do it as they will hold more weight with the archdiocese if he does not. When I first calld the archdiocese the first thing they told me was that they did not allow any anonymous claims was that most claims were untrue. So, yeah, I am a little unsettled about the whole matter. After prayer and talking to some people I do know well and who have known for years this is the best option that we have come up for now. If it does not change then we have some other options that may work too.
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TP2
Guest
You are not The Swiss police. It is not your job to police priests. Ok… He needs to be confronted as in matthew 18 Jesus clearly shows and if that doesn’t work, ya take him to the Church (BISHOP). Don’t play with the devil or you will lose your true intent. We are not God. It is not up to us to make sure The Faith of another especially that of the Priest stays pure 24/7. Isn’t gonna work. It is the bishop’s job to take over since your failing. You wouldn’t be here at ths point if what you were doing was already working, would you?
It is not up to you to “hope”. It is up to you as a member of The Catholic Church act yourself. Would you not do the same if this priest was known to be caught in sex abuse? You would not wait a second. But since he is spreading errors in Faith, you seem to have a different more cautious approach. Why? Where is the difference when in both situations PUBLIC SIN of FAITH is involved? One Temporal and the other Spiritual which speaks to ETERNAL consequences…
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vera_dicere
Guest
The fact he’s a Priest should be indication enough that “he’s not that into you”.
To the OP, the guy’s a Priest, I’d say be upfront with him. Tell him the seriousness of the situation and how you preceive his being led astray. He’s a Priest, he’s going to be told harsh things in his life and ministry.
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joandarc2008
Guest
Believe me I understand this - But I also understand the politics of it and if it is not handled right it will blow up and I will be out of the parish just like the last 4 that reported to the archdiocese. Now, I have been praying on it. I have all the addresses I need to report. I have a small group of people. We are giving him a chance to get back from his vacation be confronted with his actions by another member of the clergy if possible since he usually works alone and straighten up - all things he has not had in the past. I have also had a chance to talk to my fraternity about this as well as clergy in confession - so yes I do understand the gravity of it. But I also understand that’s why you don’t go off like a cannon and get shot down and look like you are judgemental and disobedient. You make sure you have both written proof and people that are no longer afraid to speak up to the Bishop - right now people are.You are not The Swiss police. It is not your job to police priests. Ok… He needs to be confronted as in matthew 18 Jesus clearly shows and if that doesn’t work, ya take him to the Church (BISHOP). Don’t play with the devil or you will lose your true intent. We are not God. It is not up to us to make sure The Faith of another especially that of the Priest stays pure 24/7. Isn’t gonna work. It is the bishop’s job to take over since your failing. You wouldn’t be here at ths point if what you were doing was already working, would you?
It is not up to you to “hope”. It is up to you as a member of The Catholic Church act yourself. Would you not do the same if this priest was known to be caught in sex abuse? You would not wait a second. But since he is spreading errors in Faith, you seem to have a different more cautious approach. Why? Where is the difference when in both situations PUBLIC SIN of FAITH is involved? One Temporal and the other Spiritual which speaks to ETERNAL consequences…
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TP2
Guest
I don’t care if you see yourself as “a new kid” in this church. I don’t even know what you mean by that it causes bad business? What’s that about?
I gave you The Scriptural and Church’s Methodology of taking care of a misguided priest. This is Canon law. The Bishop is responsible Ultimately for this priest. Not you. That is the faith of the Church. If you do things your own way, how do you think it will turn out? You have been given the true course of action to take per Scripture and the Faith (Canons) of The Church to follow. I will keep you and your Church in my prayers. God bless!
Don’t be afraid of The Bishop. He is The Priest’s Boss. He (The Bishop) is responsible for souls under his care. Not you or the local church. What are you afraid of?
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joandarc2008
Guest
Bad business means you starve because no one will use your business anymore and you have to move. BTW that is your only income. Yes, I know the canons - what you are doing is skipping steps. The priest needs to have made very clear in no uncertain terms that action will be taken and what he is up against.
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TP2
Guest
What steps have I skipped? You said yourself this was already attempted to be corrected with a PRIOR Bishop so where am I telling you to “skip steps”?
And if you are serious about this issue, make an appointment with The bishop. Get a few people together and ask The Bishop’s Office for a private meeting Annonymously and your fear of being known to have started this will not be known. The Bishop is the priest’s boss, not you. That’s a fact. Don’t keep the devil in charge of your church because of fear. Discuss this with the Diocesan Bishop.
And if you are serious about this issue, make an appointment with The bishop. Get a few people together and ask The Bishop’s Office for a private meeting Annonymously and your fear of being known to have started this will not be known. The Bishop is the priest’s boss, not you. That’s a fact. Don’t keep the devil in charge of your church because of fear. Discuss this with the Diocesan Bishop.
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TP2
Guest
Do the best you can with what you have and pray, then. I just want to help you know the steps to take for this problem.
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