What is up with my parish??

[Ophelia23]

After reading this post and your other post, I honestly think you need to go to a new parish. Go where you can be helped. For whatever reason, this priest seems to think very little of confession. It is utterly UNHEARD of to insist a person can receive the Eucharist in mortal sin, let alone telling a person to wait 6 months for absolution. That’s ludicrous.

Please, even if it means making a bit of a drive, consider going to a different parish. You can write higher up to complain about your current parish, but I would not encourage you to wait on response before taking action for absolution.

I am so sorry you are going through this. THIS IS NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE. I am disappointed for you.

 

[marci]

i agree with the posts that suggest going to another parish. Even when you are able to speak with him and receive confession, you probably will not be happy within this parish community anyway. I wouldn’t want to attend a parish where my priest doesn’t seem to take his role of protection of the Eucharist seriously.

 

[mommy_k]

So you have 2 options:
Go to another parish where they welcome and celebrate people returning to the church.
Or-
Keep pushing for an appointment. Seems like the priest wants you to decide what is more important-work or confession to re enter the church.
He is also busy, but he can rearrange his schedule for you this one time.if this is any indication of how this parish works, I would look elsewhere.

 

[lizaanne]

Try going with what was suggested to you: meet with a member of the lay ministry to discuss your concerns and questions about the faith, and then reserve your personal questions for Fr. P. or Fr. Q.

Unacceptable. If someone is being blocked from speaking with their own priest, there is clearly an issue.

Odd to think that we only hear one side of the story, and the staff member is judged as feeling “she owns the place.” As a self-ascribed agnostic, the OP would not be allowed to vote in any election if Mr. Voris “owned the place,” so I have to wonder if she should likewise be denied the right to testify, too.

Seriously??? Do you people LOOK for opportunities to stick Voris into a conversation, even when it’s totally and completely irrelevant?? Wow - bullies will pick fights wherever they can find them I guess. This thread has ZERO to do with Voris, so don’t go dragging it off topic.

~Liza

 

[clem456]

Seriously??? Do you people LOOK for opportunities to stick Voris into a conversation, even when it’s totally and completely irrelevant?? Wow - bullies will pick fights wherever they can find them I guess. This thread has ZERO to do with Voris, so don’t go dragging it off topic.

~Liza

Says the poster with the advertising and link for said agitator at the bottom of all posts.
Funny…

 

[lizaanne]

Says the poster with the advertising and link for said agitator at the bottom of all posts.
Funny…

Since when does anyone’s signature have anything to do with a post in a thread?



~Liza

 

[AnastasiaRomano]

Like the only time we are supposed to see the priest is at mass, or the once a month 30-minute confession period! How are nearly all the rest of the parishioners taking communion when confession has been relegated to a difficult-to-access afterthought??

If dying with even one mortal sin on your soul can mean an eternity in Hell - parishes should be doing everything they can to get people to go to confession! This should be a priority if they really believe that mortal sin is serious. I don’t see any reason why a normal parish can’t offer confessions three times a week (unless the reality is that no one would even go!)

Frustrated!!!

Jackie, I responded to your first thread, and I think my suggestion there was to talk to the priest after Mass. I saw your update, and I’m sorry that he acted that way when you approached him after Mass! It should not be that difficult to go to Confession, you’re right… and I don’t understand why this parish makes it so difficult.

So, here are my suggestions:

1. Go to confession at another parish ASAP. Like you said, mortal sins are serious. You can look up parishes near you at masstimes.org – if they don’t have a parish’s confession times listed, call the nearby parishes and ask when confession is. If the times still don’t work with your job, call the nearby parishes and make an appointment for confession with one of those priests. Please don’t miss out on the wonderful grace of forgiveness available in confession.
2. After going to confession somewhere else, approach the priest at your parish again after Mass. Calmly and politely express your concern about the way that parish handles confession – and the way the parish staff refuses to set appointments for parishioners to meet with him. Explain to him that you had been out of the Church for X number of years, and had greatly needed confession and were troubled by its unavailability in this parish.
3. If the priest responds in the way he did the first time, or responds otherwise uncharitably, then you could write to the chancellor of your diocese or the bishop. (I’m a firm believer in trying to solve problems at the parish level first, before calling on higher authority – that’s why I recommend talking to the priest again, after you’ve gone to confession elsewhere.)

I’m definitely serious about #1, though. Please do not let the problems in your parish keep you from the sacrament of reconciliation.

 

[TimothyH]

Since when does anyone’s signature have anything to do with a post in a thread?



~Liza

Since it takes up one quarter of the computer screen with multiple arrows and big red letters that say “CLICK HERE” in all caps.

-Tim-

 

[TimothyH]

I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. (Luke 11:8)

-Tim-

 

[Julia_Mae]

from the CoCL:

Can. 212

§1. Conscious of their own responsibility, the Christian faithful are bound to follow with Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or establish as rulers of the Church.

§2. The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.

§3. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

You know, maybe we are doing it wrong. Maybe it’s time, even a responsibility, for us to start just writing to the Holy See.

I have a pastor who never ever appears after Mass. He processes out the side door and then he is gone. I had a pastor who, while being more Catholic than the Pope as he announced that we hen he started saying Mass exclusively in Latin no one would be able to receive in the hand, couldn’t take a minute to answer the u question of a Protestant who came seeking something at Mass one day, and has no idea how anyone can get any sort of spiritual direction or assistance. The lay persons running RCIA seem to not be well-trained and the Pastor unavailable to oversee or, perhaps, doesn’t care. I also know a parstor who simply doesn’t show up for the scheduled evening Masses, no announcement, if he decides that he wants to go hang out with his family.

Okay, not enough priests. Then how about they stop trying to be administrators, which lay people do quite well, and ONLY be priests? How about if they only provide us with Sacraments, attend to the sick, check the lay materials for orthodoxy and be available for confession and spiritual direction?

If lay persons are to take over many functions, then someone had better figure out how to make women Deacons or create some other position or them where they can be trained and have some kind of ordination, because I guarantee you, there will never be enough men to do the job and the lay people are not being trained adequately to do these jobs.

AND – all parishes should be run by Parish Administrators not priests who are not trained for it. Priests shouldn’t be doing anything else.

I think whatever we believe, agree with me or not, we should not write our Bishops, we should write our PASTOR, our Pope.