By whose estimation is a Priest “pastoral.” Are we all (individually) to determine which Priests are “pastoral” and which are not? If so, then what if I find a Priest pastoral and you do not? Who is right? Is truth relative? I will suggest to you and those like you that it is NOT the place of the laity to determine whether or not a Priest is “pastoral.” The Church is very capable of doing it’s job, unless of course you are suggesting that the Church is not and therefore Christ was lying. As laity, we can of course go to mother Church with concerns we have concerning the issues encountered with a particular Priest, but ultimately it is the Church who decides, not the laity. You may of course attend another parish, but that advice is not what causes me concern about your advice to the OP. My concern rests in your assumption that she come back after “they get a priest who is actually pastoral.” This would imply that the OP knows better than the Church who is and is not worthy of being a Priest. I would suggest that perhaps this is an untruth. I am getting the impression that you do not love the Priesthood very much. Now of course you’ll deny that here and now, but truly how is it that you can so quickly speak out and give advice against a Priest you have never met nor seen based solely on a witness you have neither seen nor met? It is almost as if you are a shark looking for reasons to hate the Church and her Clergy.
Actually - quite to the contrary. In fact, I am quite sick of all the stupid, nit-picking, dumb complaints that often come to our priests and about our priests at our parish. Most of the complaints are trivial, as are most of the complaints that people have on this board.
The behavior that was described was not simply a priest asking, very kindly, a woman to remove a crying child or reminding a congregation to remove children when they are disruptive. Rather, it sounds like his admonition to this person was blunt and outright, and not the least bit sensitive, done in front of everyone in the moment. The person seems to have been quite humiliated - as many people would be. They also go on to say that this is only one incident in this type of behavior. If that is true, I certainly would leave the parish in that situation.
This has nothing to do with judging who can be a priest; The judgement of “pastoral” is quite subjective. But, really, it comes down to having decent people skills. There are some things that you simply don’t do. Publicly embarrassing someone is one of them. There are better ways to deal with these things - and I’d suggest that this priest find them, or he may find himself without parishioners - and for good reason!
LOL - You do that. Normally, the advice I give concerning someone who believes that their Priest has gone astray is to simply make an appointment with the Priest and speak with him about it. I wouldn’t actually suggest writing the Bishop unless the situation was grave (IE - an abuse) and then only after first speaking with the Priest directly beforehand. At least give him the courtesy of correcting the problem before running to the Bishop as though the Bishop had nothing better to do then listen to someone complaining about a Priest who asked a parent to take an upset infant into a vestibule. God bless and I hope that you will come to have a little more compassion toward those the Church has seen fit to provide us with as Priests.
.
).
duh. Of course, many Catholics actually believe a smaller Church would be fine with them. 
