I have tried to end this relationship. He stated that he needs me in his life because I am the only one who really knows him and he can talk to me.
Haha. He’s not the first priest to tell some younger woman that claptrap. He can talk to his brother priests. He can talk to his relatives. His mother, someone, anyone but YOU!
The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves. You are telling yourself how hard it is to cut this off. Sin is much more fun than being good. People here are being too nice.
This man belongs to GOD! You will NEVER win that tug of war. Even if you “win,” you lose. I’ve seen this sordid game played out before. It ruined families. It destroyed the faith of children who ended up going to another church. It made whole families leave a scandal-ridden parish. It made the papers. It destroyed a man’s health.
Priests are trained to avoid this kind of entanglement. They are warned not to do this. The ones that do are flirting with betraying their own vows. He sounds like the clerical equivalent of a mid-life crisis. You just might be his little red sports car.
Proud of yourself now? You’ve attracted a man who can’t keep a vow? By the way, Sunday might be the only day sacred to YOU, but that priest is supposed to say Mass every day. And YOU are in his way spiritually. When you divert him from God and his work, and he’s on the phone 4 or 5 hours with you, YOU aren’t taking care of your husband or children and he’s not saving souls or praying. Do YOU want to meet those souls someday who needed his help but didn’t get it because YOU were in the way?
Do you want to explain to your angry sons someday why they shouldn’t abandon their faith because YOU got entangled with a priest?
And there’s no way better to make a man despise the church than for his wife to have an emotional affair with a priest.
It’s not just a mortal sin, it’s a SACRILEGE. He is consecrated to GOD.
If your husband is making comments, I promise you there are other people who have noticed. People who notice you talk about Fr. So and So just a little too much. People at the parish who noticed your relationship.
And it’s when women do things like this that many very good priests must become standoffish and distant with the women who really do need help and counseling. We all get painted with that same brush. Thanks a lot for that. You are what they warn the future priests against in the seminary.
Listen to the people here who have said nicely for 4 pages why you must cut off all contact NOW! Quit making excuses for yourself and him and deluding yourself that it’s all just friends. Satan wants you to believe that. So the next post you write will be a tear-stained one saying “We didn’t plan for this to happen. What do we do now???”
He’s the forbidden fruit, Eve. God gave you a husband. You don’t belong on the phone with any other man at 1:00 a.m. Cover it with a fig leaf all you want, God sees you in His garden and it’s not pleasing. This man prostrated himself on the altar of God and vowed his life to HIS BRIDE THE CHURCH.
How’s it feel being “the other woman.”
Let this priest work out his problems with someone trained to help. Don’t fall for the “you’re the only one who can help me” line. I knew a priest who used it… from one woman to the next.
It’s the priest’s version of “My wife doesn’t understand me.”
Don’t take his calls. Say goodbye. Pray for him at a distance. If you really love him, and it’s about HIM, you’ll pray for him. If it’s really about you and YOUR feelings, you’ll continue to flirt with spiritual and emotional disaster. And by the way, when husbands charge priests with being a correspondent in a divorce, it makes the papers. The PAPERS LOVE THIS KIND OF SCANDAL.
And what did today’s readings say about those who scandalize the innocent little ones among us?
Okay… enough from me. In case I didn’t make my point clear… STOP THIS RELATIONSHIP NOW! QUIT KIDDING YOURSELF!