Pastor bullying laity

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The directive to stand after the Ecce Agnus Dei and after H. Communion has caused much distress in my parish. I know the bishop has the authority to adjust the norm of kneeling but I also am aware of the dubium posed by Cardinal George and the answer of Cardinal Arinze re: this issue. Last month at a daily Mass our pastor singled out a woman and publically chastised her from the altar for kneeling. She eventually went to talk to him. Well, again, he stopped in the middle of Mass and yelled “there are 2 people still kneeling”. Actually, one of them was sitting because she cannot stand for a long time. The pastor was red faced and looked totally out of control. She told me she made an appt with Father and Father told her if she sits she has to sit in the front pews so he can watch her to make sure she is sitting and not kneeling and then without a goodbye got up and left the room. The next day an elderly pastor in the area concelebrated and there was no ‘yelling’ from the altar. But the next day, a couple, not from our parish, and sitting in the back were kneeling after the Ecce Agnu Dei and when the man approached father for Holy Communion father yelled, red faced and all; “Did I see you kneeling back there?” The man calmly replies, “Do you persecute Christians?” and father yelled back “Yes I do!”. I mean the guy is yelling while holding the Blessed Sacrament in his hands.Father announced at Sunday Mass that if you are “70 and weak you can sit” but no kneeling. I get a nervous stomach thinking about attending Mass in my parish so I will start going 5 miles further to attend Mass.
 
The next day an elderly pastor in the area concelebrated and there was no ‘yelling’ from the altar.
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That is often a good way to root out the heterodox-they will make sure everything is “by the book” when a superior or guest cleric is around but will do their own thing when no one else is around to call them out on things.
 
document it if your not satisfied and take it to the bishop.
 
What happened to “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth”? This is the re-presentation of Calvary and Jesus Himself is up on the altar…why should anyone be prevented from kneeling? Are they deliberately trying to confuse the laity? 😦
 
It sounds like the pastor was the target of some letter-writing and finger-pointing, so he’s taking it out on the people. Of course, it doesn’t make any sense, except for the revenge and satisfaction that he is deriving from it.
 
How can anyone worship in that environment? High tail it out of there. (I wonder if he has medical problems)
 
Why should he yell while holding Jesus no less? If he wants to discourage kneeling he should put out the kneelers or put barbed wires on them, not yell from the Altar like a coach annoyed at the playing style of his team.

One thing I don’t get is why there are people who discourage kneeling. What’s up with that idea? What is wrong with doing a flex of the knees? Can somebody explain this mentality?
 
If nothing else, it sounds as if this pastor has anger/control issues. These should be, charitibly, brought to the attention of the bishop. It isn’t about kneeling/standing or whatever of an issue. It is about how he is interacting with people. If he desires that people stand and instructs them to do so, fair enough. But if they don’t he shouldn’t scold them. Let them do whatever they like, for heaven’s sake, and don’t worry about it so much, Father. You’ll feel a lot better that way.
 
This is outrageous! I’m so, so thankful that the Diocese of Yakima hasn’t enacted Bishop Skylstad’s pet policy. No disrespect intended towards His Grace, of course, as he is a very warm and friendly bishop. He tolerated a whole parish full of kneelers (and even distributed the Eucharist to many of us who knelt) when he sang Mass for us up at Gonzaga for our Schola. I cannot imagine him ordering his priests to terrorize the faithful into submission… 😦 If this is happening in the diocese of Spokane, please write him. He might be wonky, but he is not, as I have heard so many people say, our “archenemy.”
 
What is wrong with kneeling? Isn’t every Roman Catholic Church supposed to have a pew and kneelers?
 
Thank you for reminding me to thank God with greater ferver for my pastor.
Pray for your pastor, and your parish, no matter what you decide, okay?
 
Image_of_God said:
What is wrong with kneeling? Isn’t every Roman Catholic Church supposed to have a pew and kneelers?
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:rotfl: Not in this day and age. How about chairs that look like they belong in a community hall and a carpeted hard floor? Makes for good penance, though, kneeling on the hard floor.🙂
 
This is really shocking. I would take the matter higher up, or go to a different parish. Because if he has this much disrespect for Jesus who he is holding, there must be many other problems.
 
More than likely this priest has many other emotional issues as well. We should pray for him and his parish.
 
It’s an unfortunate fact that there are what I think we can call neo-fascists out there. They delight in doing things such as saying from the altar, “There are two people still kneeling!”. They are also the sorts who revel in saying, “I can’t HEAR you!” after the faithful make a response at Mass.

They’re control freaks, plain and simple.
 
At first I gave Father a ‘pass’ of sorts thinking it was mental/emotional problems he was not in control of but when the other priest was there concelebrating I realized there is some manipulation and bullying going on. He is well into his 60’s so there must be a ‘history’. I have an article from July 2003 Volume 79 No. 29 by Ellen Rossini Register Correspondent The National Catholic Reg. re: this issue of the 7 diocese changing the norm of kneeling to standing. Archbishop Brunette, of Seattle, is quoted throughout the article. He states that most of the letters of complaint re: standing “show a not very well developed understanding of Eucharistic theology”. “They . . . .show somebody is doing something from habit but not with understanding for why they did it.” The Archbishop also stated in this article “. . .no one will be disciplined for not standing”. I wrote Father a letter weeks ago w/ documentation re: the dubium etc and his reply was more of a form-letter because he did not address my question or issue. There are several parishes in this general area that have not implemented the standing and they are packed to the gills and the $ flows in. My pastor is in the early stages of a capital campaign to renovate this very old church. Oh, and the Knights of Col. have been @ this parish for 100 + years and Father kicked them out for challenging him on a $ issue. Very insignificant amount of $ too.
 
Actually we did attend H. Rosary for years when our children were young and needed CCD and there was much confusion in the Seattle archdiocese under Archbishop Hunthousen (sp?).And things got stable here so we have been here for 15 yrs now.
 
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