Our Priest told us off

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paddy17

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Our priest told us off for singing old traditional hymns. When there was no organist we would sing “Hail Queen of Heaven”, Faith of our Fathers" etc as the last hymn. Then one sunday he came in and told us off making one woman so upset she left and missed out on Mass. He is determined to as he said put an end to the hold the Old established church has on the parish. Trouble is the youngest parishioner that comes to mass on a regular basis is 54. The oldest is 94. What a …idiot.
 
Great day in the morning! How old is this priest? And have you or anyone else written the bishop about this episode?
 
Some may say the a little face-to-face meeting with your priest is what is required. But, I couldn’t be so confrontational. Sounds like a nicely crafted letter to the Bishop is in order. Of course, out of respect, your priest should be ‘carbon-copied’.

God Bless.
 
is he committing any liturgical abuses ? is he liberal ?

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webdezyn:
is he committing any liturgical abuses ? is he liberal ?

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IS HE LIBERAL… what the heck has that got to do with the price of beans in China?.. Lord God above, please don’t let him be Liberal… let’s see… in the dictionary the word Liberal means open minded… well, he doesn’t sound too open minded … so he must be conservative, or stuck in his ways and beliefs…

It ought to be a Mortal Sin for the beating the word Liberal takes at times… 👍
 
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webdezyn:
is he committing any liturgical abuses ? is he liberal ?

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A better question; is the congregation committing any liturgical abuses that warrant such treatment from a cleric?
 
First and foremost I would say pray for your priest. Perhaps something else other than the hymns are concerning him. A group of you perhaps can ask for a meeting with him. As he is the celebrant I would think he must be respected as well as the parishioners. However, he can still be approached and clear this up, sounds like you “all” need a mediator. :banghead: One priest we have in our town is very unapproachable (with his entourage closely behind him) one can seldom have a one on one discussion with him, much less get past the secretary. Pax always.
 
That is really sad. 😦 What’s wrong with singing the old hymns? I think a little meeting with him would be appropriate. Make it really casual, and ask him what his opinions are and is there any way to come to a compromise? A little mutual respect goes a long way.

Is he a new priest? Perhaps he is unaccustomed to the way your parish operates. Good luck. Keep us informed of your progress.
 
Hello…I am sad to hear this. Having worked with priests closely in many areas for mamy years, like RCIA and even an exorcism, I would tend to reflect on this situation and think that maybe this was projected anger. Maybe he had a disagreement with whoever, etc. I have seen emotional abuse from pastors, but I have also seen many abuses from lay-people who think they know more than the priest. There are too many of these. Priests are consecrated souls, but they are also human. I have seen one priest cry over the rejection from many from my parish. The people were downright mean…and too many times, he just acts on his humanity. But he continued to try to be benevolent as best as he could. I have seen another cry because he made a very definite pastoral error…and repented of it. They cry, they laugh, it is so touching to see.

If there were that many people attending daily mass, I see that as a positive sign. If a priest does prefer newer songs than the old traditional ones, well, I would be gentle with him and who knows if he doesn’t come around. If it was projected anger you think, well, why not invite him over for coffee or dinner and chit-chat for a while to see where he is coming from. If the atmosphere calls for it, ask him gently why the outburst? Ask him if there are any ways you could be helpful to him and the parish, etc, etc. I believe this would the wisest thing to do. Sometimes emotions get in the way of our common sense and when we act on them we can cause a lot of damage.

I guess working very closely with priests has rounded my perception of things. If I hadn’t seen their humanity at times, I might think totally different.

If having tried your best at approaching him, and these outbursts continue, then yes, a letter to the Bishop would be called for. And, of course, with a carbon-copy to the priest. I truly hope and pray that it doesn’t have to go that far!

Good luck and God bless…
Shoshana
 
Paddy 17 - Re He is determined to as he said put an end to the hold the Old established church has on the parish. So let’s start by getting rid of the old established Collection Envelopes, and especially let’s get rid of the diocesan collections.

It has been my unfortunate experience that bishops look more closely at the balance sheet than at parishioner satisfaction. 😉
 
Who chooses the hymn? Or who begins the singing?

We don’t have an organist (or any other accompaniament) during the week. The presider chooses the recessional hymn and we sing it…and yes, sometimes we don’t know it very well and then he’ll announce “that was a practice; we’ll sing it again tomorrow.”
 
Sounds like that priest has not only very little smarts for his angry attitude in the present day climate our church in the USA is going through,hence: it seems his IQ is not that high.
Secondly, this is what I mean in various posts and threads I have posted, that these are the type of modernist liberal priests that are destroying the church, and HATE anything which seems traditional, in favor of…certain masses in which people can sing FEEL GOOD songs. My advice to you is: DON’T GIVE A PENNY IN THE COLLECTION, AND ENCOURAGE OTHER LIKE-MINDED ORTHODOX FRIENDS OF YOURS IN THE PARISH TO DO THE SAME. Also, gather the facts, and write to famous national ORTHODOX Catholic Newspapers, and groups. Make some noise about this is what I am saying. Lastly, type up a good letter to your Bishop (is the priest a Diocesan Priest or from an order?) and get all those who witnessed his insulting temper tantrum to do the same. Make sure you make copies of the letter, and take note of the date it goes out. AND!!! When the Bishop responds to you, make copies of that, then send ot to: the congregation of the Clergy in Rome, To the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (Cardinal Ratzinger) and to the great Cardinal Arinze of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. THEN, LEAVE THE PARISH UNTIL THAT “priest” leaves and you get a new Pastor.
Have you also maybe considered contacting a good Canon Lawyer.
At the best, that priest owes you all a PUBLIC apology.
 
Are you upset because he wants to change the music or because of his ‘out burst’. What kind of music does he want? Is it simply newer music or out and out heritical inappropriate music? Even the ‘old’ hyms were new at one time.

What is the ‘old order’? People who want to remain obedient to the church and like their liturgy to follow the rules? Or does he mean something different.

I think it would be best if you could figure out exactly what he meant before we starting writing letters to the bishop about him.

dream wanderer
 
Go find ANOTHER Church. Let this priest be a priest of a Church that NO ONE goes to. Ha!

I would NEVER tithe to such a Church. That is good advice from MANY priest on EWTN. Listen to them.

God Bless!

BTW, there are many good Eastern Catholic Churches around! Just a thought.
 
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paddy17:
Our priest told us off for singing old traditional hymns. When there was no organist we would sing “Hail Queen of Heaven”, Faith of our Fathers" etc as the last hymn. Then one sunday he came in and told us off making one woman so upset she left and missed out on Mass. He is determined to as he said put an end to the hold the Old established church has on the parish. Trouble is the youngest parishioner that comes to mass on a regular basis is 54. The oldest is 94. What a …idiot.
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I’m sorry he did that to you. I hope the pain of the experience has passed and healing filled that space in your memory and heart. I will pray for that priest. I have experienced something similar. It hurts!
 
I agree that this outburst sounds like projected anger. Seems like something else must’ve been brewing underneath, and the song was the last straw?

I’m rather curious as to how old this priest is.

Assignments to some of the rather conservative parishes are often thought of by “progessive” priests to be a form of punishment. Is he a new transfer? Perhaps he resents his assignment…

Humans are so difficult to figure out.

Maybe that’s why so many hermits made sainthood!
 
It is an absolute right of the pastor to pick the music sung at mass. To have him so ticked off at the congregation normally means someone or a larger group really pushed his buttons.

( this may not be what is going on here but now’s a good time to get it of my chest)

I see stone wall behavior all the time with the 55 to whatever group who think they own the parish. With smiles and cream they shut the priest down on everything. If he suggess anything new they say no. If he wants to introduce new blood on committees they say no. If he wants to sing new hymns they say no. It must be very frustrating for a priest to move into a new parish were he feels trivialised by a rigid inner clique.

In one parish where this was going on the old timers had become so arrogant they opened an off the books bank account to punish the diocese and the pastor. Another parish council I know all resigned when the new pastor put a Fatima statue in the church without asking their permission. The pastor gave them a big good riddence send off. Both these parishes are stronger then ever.One of the pastors in now a MSGR.

All I can say to the old guard is get over it. I don’t know a single pastor who wants trouble but I know many who want to run the parish to the best of their ability with cooperation of loyal parishioners. If you can’t be loyal to your pastor find another parish don’t sabotage the pastor. Its your soul that suffers not his.Imagine the judgement you bring on yourself if your behavior forces the pastor to engage in petty faction politics.

I’m shocked to see that so many of you who posted feel the most Christian thing to do is to pull your financial support of the parish or write letters to the bishop. And Paddy to call the priest an idiot, you ought to be ashamed.

When I hear that a parish has only old people attending I see a sick and dying parish. It might be very comforting to the old timers but it is never Christian to make the younger catholics feel so out of place they won’t step into their church.The renewal is youthful in spirit, vibrant in charity and reverent in worship. What I have read here is grouchy, aloof and rude.

What a Christian does when his pastor seems out of sorts is to examine there own faults and try to see if the problem is theirs. Our first disposition is always to comply with the pastors wishes. Passive or open aggression is never acceptable behavior for the laity towards the pastor. And if the pastor is trully a real horses back end then consider him a gift from God, a cross that lets you practice and develop true virtue in your Christian life.

God Bless
 
Deacon 2006, with all do respect, I am young, and most of my friends who LOVE TRADITIONAL hymns are young adults. I agree with what you are saying, but ONLY if it refers to a pastor who upholds Catholic TRADITION, which the YOUNG parish members ask for. The opposite is true most of the time with the old crowd. THEY are the ones who are stuck in the 1970’s kum bayah era. They are the ones who attack (for the most part) an orthodox pastor, while tending to love the liberal ones. The case you mentionwith the Fatima statue, it seemed to be a very LIBERAL (baby boomers?) Parish council. IT IS GREAT THEY RESIGNED: If I was the Pastor I would have been happy to see them GO. They seemed to think(as many Catholics do) that the parish council is a sort of legislative branch with VETO power over a pastor: NOT! The Pastor does not even NEED a parish council. Though If I were a priest-Pastor I would RECRUIT an ORTHODOX parish council, and take to them my desires to reform a liberal parish into an orthodox one, to which I am sure they would agree, and if I am taken to task by the LIBERAL parish members, I will tell them: "I did not reach this decision alone, but the whole parish council as representative of the parish, all agreed. That’s why it would be good to have many women on the council, that way the parish FEMINAZIS, won’t say it was an all male thing. HOWEVER!!! The women in the Parish council will be chosen for their catholic Orthodoxy, and anti-feminist agenda.
 
I see stone wall behavior all the time with the 55 to whatever group who think they own the parish. With smiles and cream they shut the priest down on everything. If he suggess anything new they say no. If he wants to introduce new blood on committees they say no.
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It’s been just the opposite at our parish - the priest did things his way, including changing the liturgy & choosing non-Catholic songs & wouldn’t listen to anyone. We are so glad he’s been transferred so we can finally have a youth group for the teens & Squires & Squirettes.

Our priest was very angry & yelled a lot, then he would deny that he had done anything wrong. He alienated a good many in the parish. Most of us decided he was bonkers & we wrote many letters to the Bishop. It took 4 years to get him moved.

The new priest seems to be a winner. My dh says it’s the first time in 4 years that he was given a pennance that made sense!
 
Perhaps the priest is ready for people under the age of 54 to come to Mass and this old guard of sorts is preventing the possibility. Who knows? At any rate, it’s really sad to label ANY priest as an idiot or any other name. That priest’s hands touch the Body and Blood of Christ and simply because he’s not running the parish the way you want him to gives you no right to disparage him. Shame on you.
 
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