Political Opinions from the Pulpit

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I may in the future after the “pain” wears off. We do have strong differences of opinion, but I feel he was out of line in his presentation. I feel he is pushing many people away from the church. Thankfully, this morning’s psalm response was very comforting to me.
 
In my area there are a few priests who do occasionally bring up political issues, and some of these priests have a liberal bias while others are quite conservative. When it happens, I just realize they are expressing their own opinion. I consider what they have to say, and maybe I agree or maybe I disagree, but it does not stop me from attending Mass. Thankfully, most of the priests around here know how to preach the truth in way that doesn’t alienate whole sections of the congregation.
 
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christofirst said:
I consider what they have to say, and maybe I agree or maybe I disagree, but it does not stop me from attending Mass.
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Right. My mother always said, “We don’t go to Mass to listen to the priest talk.” This was during the 1970s when sometimes priests would say really off-the-wall things from the pulpit. Her advice has served me well because, while I haven’t heard lots and lots of politically upsetting homilies, I did go through a period of hearing a great many boring or repetitious ones, or ones that just didn’t seem to involve me at my stage in life.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I will not stop attending mass. I will go out of my way to attend a different mass/church where I know he won’t be there.
 
Another possible strategy is to simply sit by a door and discreetly excuse yourself to the vestibule during the homily. If anyone asks you can say you felt unwell and needed to step out (which would not be a lie since it’s making you upset to listen to this guy). Come back in when the priest resumes with the Mass.
 
We have had a few priests that tend to focus on subjects that are political, but none of them have said anything that counters Church teaching. Frankly, neither political party in the US are able to stand up to much scrutiny regarding the teachings of the Church. If you tow the party line, you are not going to be comfortable as a Catholic. That’s just how it is. But are homilies supposed to make us comfortable? Should we be comfortable if we offer unconditional alliance to an imperfect organization like a political party? As annoying as it is when a priest picks a certain party or political idea to pick at (and it isn’t yours) I think one should take it as an opportunity to remind themselves that these political ideas are flawed human constructions and we are called to be Catholic before we are whatever our political leaning is. Reflect on what you believe and what you’ve said and done regarding the subject. Consider if you have let your political allegiances drive you off course from what Jesus wants us to believe, say, and do. And then remember that Mass isn’t about the homily but communion with Christ.
 
Cindy3 said:
I may in the future after the “pain” wears off. We do have strong differences of opinion, but I feel he was out of line in his presentation.
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Well, as you said previously, you don’t feel he is contradicting Catholic teaching; so I’ll just go from the stand point that it is political (I’m not asking you to elaborate further). A big part of the problem is that we aren’t listening to each other like we used to. Maybe you can schedule a time to understand why he has his beliefs with an open mind and see if he lets you have time to express yours, you don’t have to agree. Priests and Pastors can’t be everything to everybody. My spouse is a Lutheran Pastor and I can assure you this is true. Can you imagine a job where your every thought and opinion is under scrutiny by people that may or may not agree with you, sometime vehemently?
 
Wow. I’ve never had that happen. I must live in a much more conservative area. I was at Mass when the priest preached in his homily that it was sinful for women to be CEOs or have any authority over men in a workplace. Another one had mothers stand for a blessing on Mother’s Day, and then said, “If you have a job, sit back down.”

Luckily, they’re not all like that!
 
I have no way of telling how wide the gap is between your own political convictions and the priest’s views that he expresses in his homilies. Even so, I would tentatively suggest the following compromise. Carry on attending his Mass, pay no attention to the homily (“In one ear and out the other,” as @angel12 already said), and – this will help, I think – make sure that Father knows that you are radically in diasgreement with him. How you are to convey that information to him is something you’d have to think about. Do your paths ever cross in everyday life? You could let him see you wearing a tee-shrt that shows your support for the politicians he is preaching against. Or, without being too confrontational, at the end of Mass one Sunday you could smilingly murmur, “By the way, Father, you didn’t convince me to change my mind about X.”
 
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If you are in the US, there are legal boundries around what can be taught from the pulpit (tax laws).

A priest cannot get up and say “vote for Joe Smith” or “do not vote for Henry Jones”. If the priest does that, you would be wise to speak to someone at the Diocese.

The priest may speak about moral issues. In our world today, we sometimes forget that our Catholic faith, our moral laws, defy politics. We are called to reject the death penalty, we are called to welcome the stranger, we are called to respect the dignity of every person from conception until natural death.

These teachings can sometimes clash with our deeply held political beliefs and it can be hard to hear them.

If the talk is about moral issues, I would suggest making notes then looking these teachings up.

A couple of great resources are the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, available on the Vatican website http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/p...peace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

The Catechism, this is a place where you can search by word http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

The USCCB for those of us in the US, or your local Bishops Conference website.
 
JulianN said:
Another one had mothers stand for a blessing on Mother’s Day, and then said, “If you have a job, sit back down.”
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I hope all the moms remained standing regardless of whether they were employed outside the home or not. I’m not a mom but that would make me write a letter to the Bishop.
 
While I generally agree with your post, and it’s good to take a situation of disagreement to look deeper at one’s own belief, I also think that “moral teaching” homilies often seem to come at it with an assumption that nobody in the pews ever really thought about the issue or challenged themself on the issue, unless of course they agree 100 percent with the speaker already.

Many Catholics do give these issues a lot of thought before taking a position. Others have already considered similar issues in the past and worked out a philosophy of living their life that allows them to more quickly reach a decision on particular issues, so they don’t have to be spending a lot of time analyzing every new case that comes up.

i don’t think the priest, the deacon, or anyone else should assume that just because people may not agree with such and such view, they are unenlightened or just haven’t bothered to think about it in view of Christ’s teaching/ the Church’s teaching. If somebody is invested in an issue to the point of feeling sad or upset at the homily about it, it’s likely they have given it a lot of thought already or it has been a big part of their life in some way.
 
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Agree.

Yet, even an old lady like me can be open to the Holy Spirit praying “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” and slowly let go of my own deeply held political stands to embrace the Church’s teaching.

Struggling with Church teaching is not the problem, hardening our hearts to that teaching is.

When an issue that is not contrary to Church teaching causes so much pain that we leave in tears, those tears can be the Holy Spirit’s way of irritating, stirring up the soil so new life can grow.

There are somethings that I struggle with, many things, and as I get older and learn more, more things are difficult for me to accept. I know that if I stay open that the Church is wiser than my favorite political positions and with God’s help someday I can accept then embrace those difficult things.
 
I have done this. Laity have agency and are free to criticize or not participate in things where they disagree with their priest.
 
I knew what you meant. 😉 Maybe that’s why Fr. Ripperger hit a sour note with me.
 
An alternative approach would be to listen to the priest’s sermons and be happy to engage with your differences of opinions. Life is more interesting when we engage with people with whom we disagree.

The question you have to ask is whether you’re talking about politics as such or moral issues on which the priest has a valid opinion based in the Church’s teaching.

Here in the UK I once heard an Anglican priest preach a sermon against our then newly inaugurated National Lottery. His concern was that the poorest in society would spend money they couldn’t afford in exchange for a vanishingly small chance of a big win while the money raised would be spent on causes that benefit the rich. Is that political or is it a perfectly valid moral argument from a Christian perspective?
 
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