Removal of priest

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arlo1124

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This week our priest is being removed and after a brief vacation will be sent somewhere for ‘evaluation’. I really don’t understand how one letter to the bishop could cause this happen or why most of the of people still left here believe it is. Has anyone else experienced this?
 
My husband has before. Chances are very good there’s a lot more to the story and to protect privacy you might not learn more (that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s any kind of cover up.)
 
arlo1124 said:
I really don’t understand how one letter to the bishop could cause this happen or why most of the of people still left here believe it is.
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please explain what happened—what letter to the Bishop? What do people believe?
 
I have experienced this. There was this priest I loved. He was only here for three short months then suddenly he was just gone.

There were people who knew things but nobody was talking.

To this day I don’t know why he was sent away but I presume there was a legitimate reason for the Bishop to take such swift action.

Pray for your priest. And your parish.
 
When I was younger, I remember we had a priest who suffered from depression. The intense duties of a pastor were too much for him, and he had a serious mental breakdown. He was removed from active duty for a period, and went into therapy. He was still recovering from it when he was assigned to our parish-- because someone else was the pastor; he was just an assistant priest. And those duties worked for him just fine.

So without knowing anything about your situation, there’s a variety of reasons why someone might need to be removed, or be evaluated, or need a break.
 
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I’m not sure my parish’s circumstances were the same as yours but we had a priest that was removed when I was a kid. He was sent away for “treatment” and I didn’t learn the full story until years later when it was a matter of public record.

Pray for our priests.
 
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Oh, and a quick note to add please don’t presume that somebody wrote a letter with falsehoods just to have the priest removed. It may be true, it may not but it is not charitable or right to presume something that we cannot know.

It is better to err on the side of trusting the Bishop.
 
I have seen priests suddenly leave parishes or be “removed” for all kinds of reasons, including alcoholism, drug addiction, being involved in some scandal with another adult, allegations of sex abuse or sexual harassment, or some “personal issue” which is not revealed. I would imagine that priests also have to deal with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and grief when a loved one dies, and sometimes they need to take a break and get some help.

Don’t presume anything, don’t spread gossip, and pray for your priest.
 
arlo1124 said:
This week our priest is being removed and after a brief vacation will be sent somewhere for ‘evaluation’. I really don’t understand how one letter to the bishop could cause this happen or why most of the of people still left here believe it is.
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I’ll bet that there are parts of the story – maybe very large parts – that you don’t know. The Bishop isn’t going to tell the parish how many letters, if any, he got about this priest.
 
Whether you think the removal is warranted or not, the Bishop has a duty to protect the church and her members. The charitable assumption is that the bishop is acting prudently. Pray for him and your former priest.
 
Well, the Bishop removed our former pastor because the liberal clique didn’t like his conservative ways.

The two pastors before him were very liberal and never said no to anyone and allowed the liberals to pretty much run the parish.

Along came the conservative priests and his first homely was about the sanctity of marriage and the Church’s teaching against same-sex marriage. With that, I knew the opposition he was going to get.

Sure enough, he was opposed from then on and anyone who stood by him, was shunned.

He did have a giant ego, though. 😉

So, they wrote to the Bishop with their complaints and he was replaced with a Spanish speaking priest from South America. Let see if the liberals try and force him out. 😃

My wife and myself became silent observers about 10 years ago, as we where pushed aside from every ministry we served in, because of the politics of the parish.

Now we watch and pray.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Well, the Bishop removed our former pastor because the liberal clique didn’t like his conservative ways. The two pastors before him were very liberal and never said no to anyone and allowed the liberals to pretty much run the parish…
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Oh no, here we go. The Pope’s refections.
JimR-OCDS said:
My wife and myself became silent observers about 10 years ago, as we where pushed aside from every ministry we served in, because of the politics of the parish.
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Are you sure, you seem to believe an army of people are out to get you. Silent toxicity kills churches, I’ve seen it myself.
 
So you’re accusing me of gossip ? 🤥

By this you assume that what took place in my parish was not shared by the priest himself and the dioceses, but that I made it up. 🤨

Jim
 
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Wow I go online seeking the wisdom of others during what is a very difficult time for my parish and myself and am confronted with the same derision we have at our church. May God bless all of us.🌈
 
JimR-OCDS said:
So you’re accusing me of gossip ? 🤥 By this you assume that what took place in my parish was not shared by the priest himself and the dioceses, but that I made it up. 🤨

Jim
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Well you are making a number of speculative comments about the fate of a number of Priests and I strongly doubt you have any concrete information on why. Whether that Priest told you or not still doesn’t matter, I can claim all sort of reasons why I might have been laid off; that doesn’t make him right. More importantly it is not your business. It is the Bishop’s and anyone else he chooses to have involved and I’m not sure what you mean by a source in the diocese. If that person way privy to the reasoning they’ve acted sinfully, otherwise it too is gossip.

I’m sorry, but this stuff kills congregations. My spouse has very recently been the Pastor of a church that was in the middle of its final implosion. Where an obstinate sub-group, who really were only interested in a Jesus flavored social club, thwarted the effort of other members to move the church forward. It was a bit of schadenfreude to watch the victory the obstinate sub-group felt by forcing my spouse out to only find out 2 weeks later that the entire board (mainly consisting of the reformers) resign taking 2/3rds of the members with them.
 
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arlo1124 said:
Wow I go online seeking the wisdom of others during what is a very difficult time for my parish and myself and am confronted with the same derision we have at our church. May God bless all of us
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I’m not really saying anything different than many other respondents, maybe it’s my tone you don’t like. Sorry if that was offense.
 
Well you are making a number of speculative comments about the fate of a number of Priests and I strongly doubt you have any concrete information on why. More importantly it is not your business. It is the Bishop’s and anyone else he chooses to have involved.
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It isn’t speculation but the facts given to me by the priest himself, our deacon on why he was removed and and the diocesan letter read at each Mass confirmed it.

Also, the priest himself told me and my wife about the letter that was sent to the Bishop, to have him removed.

I live here you don’t, so the only speculation and judgement is from yourself.

I shared the story to help the OP, not open a can of worms.

Jim
 
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Thanks Jim for sharing the story of your parish with me. It was like swing our situation in a mirror.
 
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