Uncomprehendable priests

[agw123]

With the shortage of priests, there are more priests coming in from overseas namely India and Africa. While I am ceratin of their devotion to the priesthood and the Church, some are more comprehendable than others. My regular parish has 2 foreign born priests who are very nice. One is easier to undestand than the other, but at least you can mostly understand them.

At a Church where I attend daily mass sometimes, the pastor was replaced with an administrator who we almost never see and he is being assisted by a visiting priest from I believe Ghana. The congregation really struggles to understand him for most of the Mass, with the homily being the worst part. How do others handle this situation where you really want to enjoy Mass but end up struggling with it because you cant understand it.

 

[Anna_Claire]

The elderly in my parish have complained that our priest from another country is hard to understand. I can understand him but find his homilies extremely boring and often missing the point of the scripture. Personally, he is a very nice man with whom I have had some interesting conversations.
The short answer is that we can’t do anything about this. We are fortunate to have these men who are willing to come and make sure that we are not denied the Eucharist because of our shortage of priests. (and there are things that can be done but the Church is not willing…but let’s not go there in this thread)

 

[Albany]

hey i sympathise but i think its best to just accept it and try your best to understand and support the priest.
He cant help or do anything about his accent or the way he speaks.
It will probably get easier in time.

If you cant make out his homely you could reflect yourself on the bible passages and what God/Jesus is saying to you through them.

All the best.

Albany
XX

 

[TheDoctor]

How do others handle this situation where you really want to enjoy Mass but end up struggling with it because you cant understand it.

Sorry, I can’t see where you are coming from. My enjoyment of the Mass comes from being with my fellow brothers and sisters and being able to worship and receive Jesus - not from how well the Priest speaks. If I was in a foreign country where I could not speak the local langague, Mass would still be the most wonderful thing on Earth because Jesus would still be there.

 

[Sarabande]

I agree with the last other posters. What I have found is that mostly elderly have a harder time understanding, perhaps because they are hard of hearing or aren’t used to hearing people with accents.

Supporting them and praying for them is always best. I remember we had a very nice, holy priest from India who gave wonderful homilies. They were always well-thought out and sincere. I never had a problem understanding. His English was actually better than many native speakers born and raised in the U.S. There were people, especially older people, who for one reason or another, could not or would not understand him. Some of the older ones just didn’t like the idea of foreign priests being here. One morning, while I was in the sacristy after mass (I was cantoring the mass), this priest, with whom I had become friendly, looked hurt and showed me a nasty note someone placed in the collection basket regarding his accent. I felt so bad for him. That’s not the kind of thing people should do no matter how much they can’t understand the priest. It was not very nice and doesn’t help support the priest in his duties. It was also rather cowardly to place a note in the collection basket, in my opinion.

 

[DexUK]

Most priests will prepare their homilies beforehand.

Have you thought about asking your heavily-accented priest if he would consider printing his homily and distributing it with the parish’s news-sheet?

If someone has a diplomatic word with him, I’m sure he’d understand, since he would, by virtue of his own vocation, wish that people would understand better the Word of God that he teaches. He is very unlikely to want to be an impediment to this.

 

[Anna_Claire]

Sarabande, I agree. That was a cowardly act. When an issue is that important Christians don’t drop a note in the collection basket. they try to work out something in a charitable fashion.
We Catholics deserve to be fed by the Word of God and often we are lacking in this area. However it’s not only priests from other countries that deliver poor homilies. There are too many of our own country who fail us when they don’t take the time to prepare.

 

[teresadeavila]

I’m usually not one to correct English, but since you are being somewhat critical of foreign accents and foreign priests (thank God we have them b/c of our severe shortage here in the US), the correct English adjective is “incomprehensible”.

I think we should, as Catholics embracing our faith, welcome these foreign priests with open hearts and minds; perhaps their accents at times makes it difficult to understand them, but without them, we’d have no one to administer the sacraments to us. That would be very tragic indeed.

I know quite a few of them (I’m the attorney who petitions them for a big Diocese including nuns); our parishes would be quite empty, without a priest, if we did not bring them in from India, Poland, Ghana or other African nations, etc.

 

[Sarabande]

Sarabande, I agree. That was a cowardly act. When an issue is that important Christians don’t drop a note in the collection basket. they try to work out something in a charitable fashion.
We Catholics deserve to be fed by the Word of God and often we are lacking in this area. However it’s not only priests from other countries that deliver poor homilies. There are too many of our own country who fail us when they don’t take the time to prepare.

Yes, I definitely agree. What was sad about this particular priest was that he was always well-prepared with his homilies. My husband, family and I received so much them. They weren’t just off-the-cuff. So, the anonymous person who wrote the nasty note had a problem with his accent. Unfortunately, he/she did not understand or* would not* understand him, based on the nastiness of the note which was short and cruel. Like you said, if a person is truly concerned about this, he/she should be charitable and perhaps speak privately with that priest. Perhaps, suggest speaking slower or suggest another idea.

 

[Anna_Claire]

Most priests will prepare their homilies beforehand.

Have you thought about asking your heavily-accented priest if he would consider printing his homily and distributing it with the parish’s news-sheet?

If someone has a diplomatic word with him, I’m sure he’d understand, since he would, by virtue of his own vocation, wish that people would understand better the Word of God that he teaches. He is very unlikely to want to be an impediment to this.

I don’t think that would be charitable unless all priests were printing out their homily. Not to mention it’s probably not a good idea to distribute the homily before it is preached. If the parish has a website maybe it could be uploaded later in the day.

 

[raaucoin]

Once feeling desperate to attend Mass, the only one available at the time an place was in Spanish. When I got to the door an elderly man asked “You speak Spanish?” I smiled and said “No! But I speak Catholic”. He chuckled and we went in and sat together. I didn’t understand the words, but knew what was happening and participated.
At the homily, I meditated on the readings for that day. And was amazed at some new insights.

 

[Cristiano]

My suggestion is that people should stop using birth control and give more priests to the Church. I often hear people that are never grateful for what they have but they feel that they deserve more. Catholics want so much and I have the impression that most of them are not willing to make sacrifices for that to happen. The bottom line is that we harvest what we sow. If we are selfish, cheap, and neglectful of the needs of others then we have communities that are in bad shape.

 

[agnes_therese]

I can understand your frustation when it’s difficult to understand the homily. Just try to remember – the homily is not the main reason you’re there.

 

[TimothyH]

Read along in the missal as the priest prays the collect, preface and eucharistic prayers. Watch the way his mouth moves and how he speaks when he prays the liturgy.

You will get used to his diction and accent, and then understanding him during the homily will be easier.

It’s not perfect, but it helps.

-Tim-

 

[robwar]

Sorry, I can’t see where you are coming from. My enjoyment of the Mass comes from being with my fellow brothers and sisters and being able to worship and receive Jesus - not from how well the Priest speaks. If I was in a foreign country where I could not speak the local langague, Mass would still be the most wonderful thing on Earth because Jesus would still be there.

so well put. a parish we were at had a wonderful priest from India. He was so caring and dedicated then he quit because of not how the Catholics in the pew treated him (they loved him) but how some of the staff treated this priest. He wasn’t pro-women enough for some of the female staff. It is a hugh undertaking for these priests to come to the US, learn our language then also learn how to run an American parish. there is more to it than just trying to understand an accent in a homily.

 

[Stumblesalot]

Sorry, I can’t see where you are coming from. My enjoyment of the Mass comes from being with my fellow brothers and sisters and being able to worship and receive Jesus - not from how well the Priest speaks. If I was in a foreign country where I could not speak the local langague, Mass would still be the most wonderful thing on Earth because Jesus would still be there.

I completely agree, I’m sure that the priests’ English is far and away better than my grasp of Indian. In response to incomprehensiveness, I would simply advise patience, perseverance and vfbgjuyfcjwvkuergfbukkecfbgcugkucgekruycfgauy lol.

God bless

 

[Corki]

With the shortage of priests, there are more priests coming in from overseas namely India and Africa. While I am ceratin of their devotion to the priesthood and the Church, some are more comprehendable than others. My regular parish has 2 foreign born priests who are very nice. One is easier to undestand than the other, but at least you can mostly understand them.

At a Church where I attend daily mass sometimes, the pastor was replaced with an administrator who we almost never see and he is being assisted by a visiting priest from I believe Ghana. The congregation really struggles to understand him for most of the Mass, with the homily being the worst part. How do others handle this situation where you really want to enjoy Mass but end up struggling with it because you cant understand it.

I have been in your situation here and when living overseas where I didn’t understand the language. My suggestion is that you read the readings before Mass and follow along in your missalette during Mass. Most of what happens during Mass is not verbal but during the verbal parts, expand your senses and take in the sights and other sounds besides the words being spoken.

There’s no good way around a homily that you can’t understand. But since there is no requirement for a homily at daily Mass, you can look for nuggets of understanding as a bonus. When I llived in another country, I found that having the Magnificat reflections or something similar was an “ok” substitute.

At one parish where I used to attend daily Mass sometimes, there was a visiting priest who spoke very little English. He read the Mass very carefully as best he could. Sometimes, he would read a prepared homily but you could tell he didn’t really even understand what he was reading. But he was one of the most reverent priests I had ever been privaleged to see saying Mass. His obvious love for the Eucharist and for the people present nearly brought me to tears. We were so blessed to have him even with the language barrier.

 

[DexUK]

I’m sorry if anyone felt that my suggestion of a printed version of a priest’s homily was uncharitable. It certainly wasn’t meant to be that way and I certainly didn’t mean that it should be suggested to a priest with a foreign accent in any way that would hurt his feelings. I’d be the last person to suggest that.

I merely suggested it because I’ve seen it done - published in the weekly newsletter - in a parish that’s situated in a predominantly commercial centre that gets more attendees on weekdays than it does at weekends.

 

[Anna_Claire]

I can understand your frustation when it’s difficult to understand the homily. Just try to remember – the homily is not the main reason you’re there.

I wouldn’t put it in those exact terms because the Word of God IS one of the main reasons we are there. Christ is present in The Word as well as in his special way in the Eucharistic species.
*
By means of the homily the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text, during the course of the liturgical year; the homily, therefore, is to be highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself; in fact, at those Masses which are celebrated with the assistance of the people on Sundays and feasts of obligation, it should not be omitted except for a serious reason. (CSL52)*

 

[gigi4747]

I don’t find anything uncharitable about Dex’s idea.

This issue kind of underscores the fact that our faith is about the Eucharist. The homily may be “highly esteemed,” but it’s not the centerpiece of our worship. Even when the priest is a native speaker of the local language, imo the homily should be short and to the point, precisely to emphasize that the Mass is not primarily about anything the priest says. Making preaching the centerpiece of worship is wrong in and of itself, but also leads to some of the silliness we see among non-Catholic Christian churches, eg, a pastor bringing a bed and a stripper pole onto the pulpit to talk about sex. You don’t need gimmicks when you have the Eucharist.

If you simply cannot understand what the priest is saying, even after making an honest effort, I’m not sure what solution there is, other than to try a different parish. If you want to stay in your present parish, you can reflect on the readings and say some prayers on your own during the homily! Good luck ~