Rectory

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Hello, how far is the priest’s house (rectory) from the church? How you ever been inside it? If so, what is it like? What’s the priest’s office like?

Thanks!
 
Usually nearby the church, sometimes attached or “next door.” Typically about what you would expect it to look like . . . a public area (often the first floor) with offices and perhaps meeting rooms, and a private area with the priests’ rooms. Maybe more religious pictures than you would see in your average household . . . 😉
 
musicmantg11 said:
Hello, how far is the priest’s house (rectory) from the church? How you ever been inside it? If so, what is it like? What’s the priest’s office like?

Thanks!
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Our rectory is on church property and is a 150 year old farmhouse that has been updated. I have never been inside it, except for the offices, which were in the basement. A damp moldy basement that would get flooded occasionally. Now that we have built a new Ministry Center, all of the offices, including the priests’ are in that building. I only know the rectory does not have central air, as I see window units from the outside.

I have been in other rectories around here, and most of them need a good overhaul, if not a torch, IMO. The rectory seems to be the last thing a parish will spend money on. I helped clean up the rectory in my last parish–it was disgusting. There was a housekeeper, but she only did the very basics, was elderly, and was kept on out of charity so she could make a living. The carpets, wallpaper, paint, bathrooms, and kitchen were at least 30 years old, the kitchen had years of grease built up in it.

And when a priest friend of mine from that parish got reassigned to a new parish as Pastor, the rectory was even more disgusting than my old parish, and he actually spent hours himself cleaning and scrubbing to make the parts he was going to live in habitable. He was the only priest, and some of the bedrooms and bathrooms he showed us were truly amazing–amazingly filthy, that is. Apparently the previous pastor, who had died, didn’t have a good relationship with the parishoners, didn’t care about much, and the parish was literally falling apart. Even the church needed a good cleaning.

Of course, there are only a few rectories I’ve been in, but I would not want to live in any of the ones I’ve seen.
 
New 2-story house just behind the church, on parish property.
Basement has Chapel; rec. room with wood stove; sauna; storage areas; 1/2 bath.
First floor has kitchen; dining room; living room with propane fireplace; laundry room; 1/2 bath; office.
Second floor has 4 bedrooms with ensuite baths. The two largest have separate office space.
 
The Parish School and the Convent are in between the Church and the Rectory. There’s also another barn/office structure but it’s kind of in the back. Been inside the Rectory many times with our previous pastor but not so much with the latest who has been here about 6 years. There are offices in the front on the lower level with kitchen and offeces in the bac. There are bedrooms, baths and sitting areas on the two upper levels. It’s an old house.
 
It should be noted that our ‘rectory’ is primarily their residence, they don’t usually meet anyone there for business purposes.

The parish offices are on the back of the church, in what originally was the Catholic school. The school was converted to living quarters in the late 70s and that was the rectory until 3 years ago. Today the building has a chapel, the parish office, the pastor & the missionary’s offices, a kitchen, a meeting room, a parish coordinators’ office, a pre-school, catechetical room, bedroom.
 
musicmantg11 said:
Hello, how far is the priest’s house (rectory) from the church? How you ever been inside it? If so, what is it like? What’s the priest’s office like?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
What a peculiar question. I have never noticed anything particularly remarkable about any of the four rectories I have been to. Did you expect something different?
 
The rectory office is always busy. The phone rings. The doorbell rings. Votive candle sales. Mass intentions and stipends recorded. Collections need recounting and deposits prepared and delivered. Checking accounts and bookkeeping need reconciling. Appointments made, messages taken. Funerals are arranged. Weddings and Baptisms are set up. Couples–engaged and beyond–come in for meetings with Father. The unemployed and homeless come in looking for help from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Shut-ins call for pastoral visits. The weekly bulletin is composed, printed and folded. Liturgical supplies reordered and stocked. Parish groups from CCD to the choir come in for copies. Always the copier.

All this from a church secretary of 20 years who was also allowed to bring her two beautiful babies to work after maternity leave. The pastor got to hold and feed both infants (and give thanks for the gift of celibacy). The kids are now 16 and 10 and most comfortable with parish life.

How do I know? The secretary is my wife.

The living quarters of the rectory are comfortable but not opulent, luxurious.

Joe
 
Phemie said:
New 2-story house just behind the church, on parish property.
Basement has Chapel; rec. room with wood stove; sauna; storage areas; 1/2 bath.
First floor has kitchen; dining room; living room with propane fireplace; laundry room; 1/2 bath; office.
Second floor has 4 bedrooms with ensuite baths. The two largest have separate office space.
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what, no jacuzzi? oh the horror.
 
Jguerra said:
The rectory office is always busy. The phone rings. The doorbell rings. Votive candle sales. Mass intentions and stipends recorded. Collections need recounting and deposits prepared and delivered. Checking accounts and bookkeeping need reconciling. Appointments made, messages taken. Funerals are arranged. Weddings and Baptisms are set up. Couples–engaged and beyond–come in for meetings with Father. The unemployed and homeless come in looking for help from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Shut-ins call for pastoral visits. The weekly bulletin is composed, printed and folded. Liturgical supplies reordered and stocked. Parish groups from CCD to the choir come in for copies. Always the copier.

All this from a church secretary of 20 years who was also allowed to bring her two beautiful babies to work after maternity leave. The pastor got to hold and feed both infants (and give thanks for the gift of celibacy). The kids are now 16 and 10 and most comfortable with parish life.

How do I know? The secretary is my wife.

The living quarters of the rectory are comfortable but not opulent, luxurious.

Joe
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years ago I knew people used to sneak into the office to get drinks from the mini-fridge that was for the deacons and priests. it gets over 125 out here so priests and deacons need to keep hydrated.
 
FrCorey said:
what, no jacuzzi? oh the horror.
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That I’m not sure about. 😛 But the former pastor got everything he wanted, so if he’d wanted one I’m sure there would be one in his ensuite. I’ve lost track of how often he bragged that he got his sauna even after the bishop said not to have one put in.
 
The rectory at our parish shares space with the parish office. The priest has a sizable office, which I think doubles as his den, judging from the size of the television. His bedroom and bathroom are off of his office. There are at least a couple of other “suites”, plus a kitchen and nice sized dining/living room. Our priest says it is comfortable. It is right next door to the church.

We visited our previous pastor at his new parish, and he gave us the grand tour. The whole rectory was being renovated, but the renovations had been halted due to lack of funds. His quarters had been finished, he had a bedroom, bathroom and sitting area. Nicely decorated. There is a door in the sacristy of the church that leads to the rectory, so it is very close.

Another parish we visited had flooded during hurricane Rita. After 3 years, restoration was completed and the priest was able to move back in. Then about 3 months later came Hurricane Gustav. The church had 3 feet of water, the rectory had 6 feet. The sheetrock was full of mildew and the building was in the process of being gutted down to the studs. We helped the priest move some of what was salvaged to his car. It was truly heartbreaking.
 
FrCorey said:
what, no jacuzzi? oh the horror.
Click to expand...
The parish I where I used to work the pastor put a jacuzzi in his private gym…BTW without going into detail he no longer has faculties.

Where I work now the rectory is very nice. We took the offices out of the rectory about 3 years ago so now it is their home. First floor has kitchen , big dining room, living room with fireplace, sun room (with really comfy chairs), a chapel and two small parlors, and a guest room with bath.

On the second floor are the priests’ suites (bedroom and sitting room) Our pastor’s sitting room is nice with a sofa, lounge chair, a credenza and bookcase. I have not been in the other priests sitting rooms but they are a bit smaller. The third floor has two single rooms for guests. The basement has a laundry room, storage room and our facility manager’s office. They have the whole house very vary nicely decorated.
 
Our rectory is right next door to the church. When you come out of the main Church doors there is a little ‘square’ with the rectory and the offices making the other two sides. Then across the service road is the school and it’s grounds.

I have been in the rectory a few times–just on the ground level. There is a reception area, priests offices, a sitting room and the dining room and kitchen. It is all very nice but not opulent (definately no sauna!). There are frequently events in the rectory–Christmas party and similar things.

Our pastor often has visiting priests and we currently have an in-residence priest so I know there are at least 5 bedrooms upstairs. I imagine they also have a private sitting room area upstairs.
 
Our rectory is in a house on the church property. I have only been in the living room and dining room. Fr. has one room set up as a private chapel. What I saw of it looked pretty nice.

We have another priest who lives in an apartment on the second floor of the house that serves as the parish office. The apartment has three bedrooms, a small living room and a tiny kitchen. We used to hold classes up there before our second priest moved in.
 
Our rectory is a 2-story house. Maybe 2500 sq ft, so pretty decent size, but five priests live there. It looks like any other ordinary house, other than a den in the back with a bar (the priests are all Irish).

It’s about 1/2 a mile from the church, so there’s a paved path and a golf cart to travel back and forth. There’s also an office building next to the church where the ministries meet, and all of the activities Jguerra mentioned take place. As far as I know, the only “official business” that takes place at the rectory is that pastor has revolving dinner parties with parishioners. But I’ve been in parishes where that’s not the case and the rectory was living quarters and a parish office.
 
A good friend of mine is a priest and I’ve been in his rectory many times. It’s basically a regular house on the parish grounds.

Really cool library though 🙂 (Hmmm, Thomas Aquinas in English…or in Latin…decisions decisions)
 
Our rectory is just a regular two story tract house (3 bedrooms, I think) across the street from the Church property. (The housing tract was finished right around the time that the archdiocese carved off a corner of the seminary property for our new parish to build on.) I haven’t been in it in YEARS so I don’t know what it has in it that’s any different from any other house.

The parish offices are not in the rectory; they are on the Church campus. (I don’t know if our pastor has a personal office in the rectory or not.) Father has a nice big office on the parish grounds with one door leading to his secretary’s office and french door leading out into the courtyard.
 
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