What is it like for my parish priest on a Sunday night?

[Tis_Bearself]

I do spend time in other dioceses and have only been in and around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for about the last 3 years.
I would have to go out to farm country to find a parish under 500 people, and if that parish was at the edges of some large diocese like Pittsburgh, Cleveland etc., the parish would probably end up getting merged. Pittsburgh diocese for example has got some really remote small parishes, which have either been already merged or were merged in the last go-round. Usually there will still be a Mass at the remote parish so people don’t have to drive, but there may not be a dedicated priest.

 

[phil19034]

They couldn’t possibly get to know everyone, and most of them don’t seem to want to get to know everyone.

I think it also depends on the diocese. For example, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is geographically small enough where the diocesan priests (who pretty much all grew up in the Archdiocese) can visit with their parents, siblings, nieces/nephews, etc each weekend. So where I live (in Philly) the priests rarely do social things with parishioners because they still have their family and high school friends in the area. Our pastor’s brother is a member of our parish, and our other priest’s family lives less than 20 minutes away.

But in other dioceses where they have to “import” diocesan priests from other areas, or where the local diocese is geographically massive (like the Diocese of Cheyenne, which is the entire state of Wyoming) a priest could be several hours from family and hard for them to visit often.

 

[twf]

Here in Vancouver, I’ve seen priests, accompanied by a small crowd of laity, visit a pub just a block or two from the cathedral after the 8 pm Sunday Mass. They make it an event. I don’t see why that couldn’t be done in any urban centre.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I know my pastor back home in another state spends a lot of time with his relatives, because he talks about this in his homilies. His assistant is from Africa and has no family in the area (his family is back in Africa) but is a huge people person and always has lots of people inviting him places and wanting to spend time with him. The pastor we had when i was growing up was also a very social man and was always surrounded by friends in the community, as well as other priests.

I tend to think some of the “loneliness” that priests allegedly have may be due to the personality of the priest as an individual, rather than something suffered by all priests.

 

[Rob2]

We had a lovely parish priest who died suddenly in 2008 .

He was a very gifted preacher , and was known throughout the diocese for this , but he was not good at socialising . On a one to one encounter he was great , but he wasn’t one for small talk on social occasions . And I think he was content with his own company , and we became aware of the hours he spent with the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament when the church was closed . He told us once that before bed he would spend time before the Blessed Sacrament and would end his day there reflecting on the words “You are mine, O my child; I am your Father , and I love you with a perfect love.”

When he died there was a card on the church notice board from the neighbouring Anglican priest , and he had written on it “Easter will never be the same again” .

We were a bit puzzled wondering what this meant . At his funeral Mass this Anglican priest gave one of the readings . The bishop thanked him during the homily , and mentioned that each Easter our beloved priest had had his Easter dinner with the Anglican priest and his family . Puzzled solved , and we were delighted to hear that .