Really odd mass

[NextElement]

Okay, so went to Good Thursday mass tonight. To my surprise, my normal priest wasn’t there! There was a new priest who claimed that my normal priest “wasn’t coming back” and had “taken time off for religious vocations”, whatever that means. I know my normal priest was known for kind of saying stuff willy-nilly and disagreeing with our bishop, but it just seems odd that they would remove him 3 days before Easter! Has anything like this happened to you guys before? How do I find out what happened to my normal priest?

Also, we kept smelling something burning throughout the mass, and there was a medial emergency in the narthex after mass… Odd night all around.

 

[otjm]

Okay, so went to Good Thursday mass tonight. To my surprise, my normal priest wasn’t there! There was a new priest who claimed that my normal priest “wasn’t coming back” and had “taken time off for religious vocations”, whatever that means. I know my normal priest was known for kind of saying stuff willy-nilly and disagreeing with our bishop, but it just seems odd that they would remove him 3 days before Easter! Has anything like this happened to you guys before? How do I find out what happened to my normal priest?

Also, we kept smelling something burning throughout the mass, and there was a medial emergency in the narthex after mass… Odd night all around.

There have been some abrupt removals of priests; usually for a good reason. Normally, the bishop will come out later and say “Fr. (X) was moved because…”

That may be the reason he was removed, or it may be the pretext. Not all reasons for a priest being removed are going to be revealed; in part because the priest has a right to his own good name. In circumstances where the priest was removed because of an allegation of sexual abuse, that is likely to come out (now, sooner than in the past) if for no other reason than that the State may be involved in the matter.

However, without facts, it is best to simply wait the matter out. Rumor and gossip have no place in the Church (and as people are prone to it, one should be especially careful not to engage with others in speculation or repetition of “I heard…”).

You may find out why he was moved; you may not. It is first of all a personnel matter, and the Church has a duty to resolve problems; that does not necessarily indicate that in doing so, they need to tell one and all why; again, the priest has a right to his own good name.

What you may have smelled could possibly be the incense or the charcoal used to burn the incense.