Venting About Parish Management

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Cory

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I’ve posted a lot about how much I dislike my parish. Today, along with several other parishioners, we showed up to confession.

It’s clearly on the calendar. Same time every Saturday.

Next Saturday it’s clearly noted that there will be no confession and confession has been removed from the calendar.

But today it just didn’t happen. No explanation, no reasoning. The priests just didn’t show up. Everyone was standing around confused.

I tried looking up the neighboring parishes and they don’t publish calendars and they don’t answer their phones either.

Bottom line I love being Catholic, I love everything we believe, I simply can’t stand the priests or the way my parish, and most likely the other parishes, are managed.

Throw in the mismanagement of all the other scandals that go all the way to the Vatican and I just basically dislike the entire organization.

I really feel like becoming protestant.

/rant over
 
Maybe someone died?

Maybe the priest got sick?

Maybe he forgot?

There’s a lot of reasons it could have happened, don’t jump to conclusions.

Also, never jump ship… ever. No matter what. Abandoning ship is not the answer.
 
I showed up for confession 3 times in a row to find it cancelled without notice 2 of 3 times.

I finally went to another parish.

Since childcare is not provided for confession it is a big deal for me to be able to make it, to be essentially “stood up” for a standing, posted, advertised appointment is offensive, to be honest. once I can see, but 3 times in a row?
 
The priests here sometimes just don’t show up for confession too and it’s quite annoying.

I don’t really like the church atm. But honestly, truth is truth. You only leave if the church is not the one true church of God, not because you don’t like the people in it.
 
Cory said:
Bottom line I love being Catholic, I love everything we believe, I simply can’t stand the priests or the way my parish, and most likely the other parishes, are managed.
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Sounds like you have very little knowledge of the other parishes, so how do you know how those parishes are managed? You may be quite surprised. There are a number of parishes in my town; to say no two are managed the same way would be quite the understatement.
 
I just converted from a Baptist Church. Believe me, they have more issues! Lack of reverence inside the sanctuary, talking during the sermon, minister wearing jeans, gossip, and more importantly, Christ is not present. The Catholic Church is the true Church founded by Christ. Is there a Bishop You can talk with? I’ll pray for your parish and priests.
 
Hello.

I’d re-read the book Frequent Confession, then, talk to the pastor, preferably with the others who didn’t get their confessions heard. Hearing confessions should be one of the most important things a pastor is doing, along with celebrating the Mass. That should be a priority for him.

If talking with the pastor doesn’t work, I’d write to the bishop.
 
I feel your pain regarding the confession. A number of churches lately seem to be having problems with priests either showing up late (or not at all), leaving early, or otherwise doing an inadequate job of serving the people who wish to attend Confession regularly.

Oddly, I have also heard some priests complaining that they show up for confession and no one shows up to confess. I would like to know where these priests serve because I almost always see a line for confession and the one time I happened to find a priest all alone with no line, two or three other folks showed up to confess as I was leaving.

I would suggest that you find a church, shrine, monastery, Newman Center etc. in your area that actually keeps to its posted confession schedule, and try to go to that one. The MassTimes app has been very helpful to me in this regard. Also, around Christmas and Easter, look for churches that host a penance service with multiple priests. One church near me usually has about 6 priests on hand for those and I went to a church last week that had something like 23 priests and heard an entire church full of confessions (no exaggeration, the church was full, almost no seats) in an hour.
 
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Focus on the Eucharist and go in spite of your frustrations. Parishes often aren’t very organized and it can be really hard work getting things done.
 
When you complain “a lot” as you note about your parish it’s about time to change parishes or take the time you are using on the internet complaining to do something to improve circumstances in your parish before you leave.
 
As others have said, find a new parish. I’m not in what would be considered a big City, and there’ s 7 different parishes within 20 minutes of me. Before my husband and I had kids we pretty much went to church everywhere depending on what time we wanted to go to mass, but once we started having kids we picked a home parish. They’re all SO different, there’s every chance that another church close by would be a better fit for you.

Also, before you get to fed up with how the whole Church is ran, remember there is a church hierarchy, which is something Protestant churches don’t have. You can always notify the diocese of issues like priests not showing up for confession and other issues.
 
This was many years ago and a different Priest, so it would not matter much now.
 
I know what you mean. It frustrates me that my Parish is so technically behind with the times, i live in a pretty well populated and affluent area and there’s not even a church with an up to date website within driving distance. One thing some protestant church’s do well it adapt to the times in the sense of communicating with their parish via apps and online etc. Still, i wouldn’t trade our theology for theirs any day of the week.
 
This isn’t my first parish. They’ve all been run about the same.

No, jumping to conclusions. No one died. They just didn’t want to do confession because of Christmas but updating the calendar to not waste peoples time was too much work.

Also, I doubt the bishop would say anything. When I lived in Vegas I contacted the bishop about some matters. The secretary told me that the bishop doesn’t speak with parishioners and that the priests have full authority. What they say goes no option for grievances.
 
Oh, just stop it!

What a shame that Father had to go anoint a dying soul. Or was delayed in returning. Or simply forgot. How utterly human of him.

Was Christ present in the Tabernacle? Use those knees and make an act of contrition right there.
 
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I get where you are coming from, I too value my time and try to use it wisely and resent when it’s wasted by another person’s thoughtlessness.

This sort of thing is bad for the parish as rightly or wrongly people take it to heart and it can make some question why commit to a faith when it seems like a one way commitment. At a time when many Catholics are going to other churches simple things like commitment and good communication, especially when something changes, are low cost things which could help.
 
I would add that most parishes are short staffed when it comes to priests. The parish I work for is a 7000 family parish (huge) and we only have two priests. If your parish only has one, and a parishioner calls and needs Anointing of the Sick/Last Rites at the hospital or something like that, the priest would go there. Sometimes things happen and your schedule falls by the wayside. That’s life.

If I were you, I would take it easy on your parish. No doubt it is difficult to go to confession if you have young kids and it’s certainly disappointing to find it canceled when you arrive. No one blames you for being frustrated. But, parish life is very hectic and extends far past the work hours of a normal week. If you really feel your parish is the problem, try a different one. As someone that works for a parish and has friends who work for different parishes, I can vouch for the fact that no two parishes are run in exactly the same way.
 
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