What reason's would a new priest resign?

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dfp42

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Today I learned that our newly assigned priest of a year and a half at our parish sent in a resignation letter to our bishop to resign and is leaving in 2 weeks to not be a parish priest but to work with a ministry somewhere else etc. I also found out that a retired priest who was living in the convent at the parish is leaving for good too and retiring for good. This was announced today at our parish by a visiting priest after mass was over. I wonder though are priest forced to resign under pressure or do they simply do it themselves. It’s odd this has happened so soon and to find out everything is changing in 2 weeks. I’m hoping for the best.
 
Ill health?

We had a priest when I was younger for a short while and he had a nervous breakdown or stoke, cannot remember but he resigned and went to live in a home.
 
Nelka said:
Ill health?

We had a priest when I was younger for a short while and he had a nervous breakdown or stoke, cannot remember but he resigned and went to live in a home.
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He seems fine though and was actually doing the mass yesterday when at the end a visiting priest came to the pulpit to announce it for him.
 
dfp42 said:
Today I learned that our newly assigned priest of a year and a half at our parish sent in a resignation letter to our bishop to resign and is leaving in 2 weeks to not be a parish priest but to work with a ministry somewhere else etc. I also found out that a retired priest who was living in the convent at the parish is leaving for good too and retiring for good. This was announced today at our parish by a visiting priest after mass was over. I wonder though are priest forced to resign under pressure or do they simply do it themselves. It’s odd this has happened so soon and to find out everything is changing in 2 weeks. I’m hoping for the best.
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It is none of our business - we should pray that he finds the calling that God wants him to find. Sometimes it is just simply a matter of maybe parish ministry is not for him - but if it is something that everyone was supposed to know the diocese would have made an announcement about it.
 
Could be a lot of reasons. He could have had serious problems with his bishop (not saying who was in the wrong here…just saying…).
 
dfp42 said:
Today I learned that our newly assigned priest of a year and a half at our parish sent in a resignation letter to our bishop to resign and is leaving in 2 weeks to not be a parish priest but to work with a ministry somewhere else etc. I also found out that a retired priest who was living in the convent at the parish is leaving for good too and retiring for good. This was announced today at our parish by a visiting priest after mass was over. I wonder though are priest forced to resign under pressure or do they simply do it themselves. It’s odd this has happened so soon and to find out everything is changing in 2 weeks. I’m hoping for the best.
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I suggest you leave off wondering, worry and speculating, and advise other parishioners to do the same. The best thing to do is exercise Christian charity to the utmost and assume the explanation given is all the explanation you need: he is leaving to pursue another ministry somewhere else, and that the older priest is retiring. They are allowed to retire, too, you know. There is NO benefit and very great danger to speculation, particularly in public, among parishioners over these things. If there was something the bishop thought the parish needed to know, you would be told. If not, not.
 
I agree the best thing is to pray for him and be supportive.maybe he is also having a crisis of faith.
 
Could be any number of reasons, but it’s best not to speculate but to pray for him. there is a danger that there will be gossip, and I would advise you to steer clear of anyone “wondering out loud” what has happened.
 
puzzleannie said:
I suggest you leave off wondering, worry and speculating, and advise other parishioners to do the same. The best thing to do is exercise Christian charity to the utmost and assume the explanation given is all the explanation you need: he is leaving to pursue another ministry somewhere else, and that the older priest is retiring. They are allowed to retire, too, you know. There is NO benefit and very great danger to speculation, particularly in public, among parishioners over these things. If there was something the bishop thought the parish needed to know, you would be told. If not, not.
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Agree completely. Do not speculate. Doing it here is pointless, doing it in your parish could be harmful. The explanation you got is a perfectly good one. Young priest going to work in the missions, older priest retiring and moving.
 
You often get diocesan priests joining religious orders, or religious order priests joining dioceses. There was a good priest in our archdiocese (dead now – he died on his way to say Mass) who at one point went to a monastery to try a vocation there, stayed for several years, and then ended up deciding to come back to being a diocesan priest of our archdiocese. (They made him keep bees to teach him patience; and since he was a great multitasker, he just couldn’t stand having such a peaceful simple job.)
 
Mintaka said:
You often get diocesan priests joining religious orders, or religious order priests joining dioceses.
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Agreed, I know a diocesan priest who, after some time as a pastor, discerned that his more complete calling was to be a missionary priest.

I also know a priest who was a vowed brother in an order. He discerend that his call was to the priesthood, but to the diocesean priesthood and thus left his order to seek ordination in the Archdicoese of Detroit; he is currently a parish pastor here.
 
It could be any number of things.
  • Forced to resign for some unknown reason.
  • Resigning because of ill health (people don’t always show it)
  • Called to an order instead of being diocesan
I’ve known priests involved in all three of situations, perhaps more. I’m sure there’s a much longer list of reasons why a priest will resign.
 
Both of the Priests who ran my high school youth group have resigned. They were both torn between God and having a family and eventually felt that God was calling them in a different direction.

Both men have married and have children. Both are active in their parishes and are still practicing Catholics. I am sad that the Catholic Church lost 2 great men. I wish that they had the option of stepping down to “permanent Deacon” status, but instead we lost them.

Maybe this young priest simply felt that he could do more good as a missionary then as a parish priest.
 
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