Parish priest displays zero dignity

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Biancs

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Hi Everyone. I’m very concerned about our new parish priest. He started just before lent, and all his masses including Ash Wednesday have been peppered with off colour jokes, and distinctly lacking the dignity befitting of Lent. We have not had a real homily except for those masses where the celebrant is one of the other priests who lives on the parish grounds. Constant references to the Red Devils (for whatever reason he chooses not to simply say Man U) and that we should wear their shirt when we come to mass. After Stations of the Cross he basically chased us out of church because of a “scheduled power outage” (there was no such outage).
Any advise? I’m being confirmed at the Easter Vigil so moving to another parish is not an option.
Thanks
 
Never a better time to pray pray pray. Go before the Blessed Sacrament, either exposed or reposed within the Tabernacle. The greater the problem, the greater should be the prayer.

And patience.
 
I’ll echo @po18guy. Pray, pray, pray.
I’m being confirmed this Easter as well, I can’t imagine the despair I’d have if I was in your situation. I’m so sorry.
I’ll be praying for you and your parish.
 
Thank you so much Stephen. I will follow you advise. And I will keep you in my prayers also.
 
Have you spoken to the priest and/or the pastor about your concerns?
Do many other parishioners share your concerns? If so, have you considered going in a group to speak to the priest and/ or the pastor?
Are there others in the Parish who respond well to the priest’s mannerisms that you don’t like?

The priest has only been there a couple of weeks and may still be getting used to the expectations of your parish.
He may also have been sent there to balance out the styles of the other priests.

I am not seeing how encouragement to wear a sports shirt to Mass is a terrible thing, Lent or not. And since you have provided no examples of the jokes you object to, it’s hard to say whether those are so bad either.
 
I’ll be praying for your parish and welcome to the forums😇

Just need to say (as a United supporter) that referring to Manchester United as “ManU” is considered highly offensive for different reasons, look it up. Please use Manchester United, United or ManUtd.
 
Hello. Thank you for the prayer and gentle heads up. Just googled it now, apologies I had no idea it was offensive. I’m South African and we’re more of a rugby country. Loads of Manchester United fans in these parts though and a lot use the abbreviation I did. I will be sure to share the info with my United friends!
 
I have not spoken to Father and I can assure you many parishioners feel the same. I have no issue in sharing support for a team or using a joke or anecdote to illustrate a point in the gospel or highlight our common humanity. He never references the gospel or readings… PS I was raised Catholic and have been exposed to many priests including visiting ones.
Anyway, I will follow the advice of prayer, prayer, prayer 🙏
 
Well, if there’s a whole group of you and you don’t care for what he is doing, but none of you tell him, that’s not very fair. If your boss or customers didn’t like how you were doing your job, but no one gave you any feedback, you would not know you were doing anything wrong, and maybe your last employer or former boss wasn’t bothered by it. You also might want to give your own side of the story.

Praying is good, but if there’s a whole crowd of people objecting to this priest, you all should be able to have a discussion about it. If you’re comfortable with and knowledgeable about priests, you could tell him yourself. It might bear a lot more fruit than just kvetching to an Internet forum and then praying/ hoping the problem will go away.
 
Maybe have a respectful chat with the priest rather than going over his head. He may not even realize he’s being perceived this way. I know l tend to be rather sarcastic at most times and some people might not appreciate my type of humor. But I’d never realize it until somebody spoke to me about it.

Also, Go Liverpool! YNWA 😀
 
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This problem is as old as Christianity. Not all Christians can just leave the world out the door when they enter the church, so why not, this can happen to priests too. St. John Chrysosthom complained about it in one of his homilies, that if you ask a Christian about biblical characters and events they will most likely go numb. But if you ask them about sports and bets and name of athletes, those are known by heart.
Maybe your priest now needs you to remind him, nicely, that it is Lent, and you look up to him for his position, and he mentions such wordly things during Lent that you find it hard to get spiritual following his homilies. You may want to add that maybe for him it’s easier to stay concentrated on Lent and sports at the same time but for you that is problem, because you are just about to be confirmed and you still take baby steps in faith and concentration.
 
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Not all men that are called to be priest are good leaders nor are they good speakers. Homolies could be the one thorn in his side. Lots of people love their vocation but still have one aspect of it they can’t handle.

I would pray and have a talk with him. My priest is from a different culture and he often will make jokes that pit the genders against each other. I think there is some forgiveness because he is a nice guy. Nonetheless, if this is bothering you welcome to being a Catholic ! All groups have their sins
 
The off color jokes would be it for me. I don’t understand that during Mass.
 
One person’s off-color joke might seem fine to another person.

I was at a church a few weeks back where the very popular pastor started his homily with a discussion of a quote by Lao Tzu. The congregation seemed fine with it and it didn’t bother me either, but I’m pretty sure some other people would go home and start a "liturgical abuse " thread over that.
 
Now if he were to start with a quote from Sun Tzu, you should probably worry . . . there you’d be, in the pew one minute, and the next thing you know you’d be part of a covert attack on the next church over! :crazy_face::roll_eyes:😱
 
Correct me if I am wrong. Is it not true that priests are obliged to preach on one (or more) of the day’s readings? Perhaps you could approach this priest, or the pastor, to clarify why this doesn’t happen.
I’m pleased to report that after several decades of priests telling bad jokes or just bantering in the pulpit (eg the 70s-80s) I’ve seen a big shift in my area away from this and a focus in sermons on the day’s readings. I’m not suggesting all the homilies I hear are well done, but at least they are not the drivel they once were.
 
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Hearing off colour jokes or having sermons that arnt in order can affect the feeling of reverence going into the the prayers before holy communion and that isn’t good at all.
Praying that things change for the better OP.
 
I wouldn’t take it upon myself to approach the Priest but I would perhaps seek out a parishioner who has been in the parish a long time, is known to be balanced and respected and who is in a position to quietly speak to Father on behalf of the parishioners. There is always a few of that type in every Parish. They are a God send. This happened at my parents parish with one of the Nigerian Priests. He had begun in Australia in a town in far west Queensland for a few years before being transferred to a city parish. He had picked up much of his ‘aussie’ from his time in the bush.

During one sermon he was relating a frightening moment when a kangaroo had shot across the road when he was travelling at high speed and he quoted himself saying “where did that bloody b*stard come from!” Everyone apparently laughed but he was later told that that it wasn’t appropriate language for the urban crowd. 😃
 
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