What to Do when a Priest Lies?

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masuwerte1

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On Easter Sunday, the priest at my wife’s church said in his homily that only the Catholic Church has a valid Eucharist, that no others do. I asked him later about the Orthodox; he said that he was aware that they had a valid Eucharist, but that he was trying to make a point.
This affects my family in two ways. First, my wife, who is a cradle Catholic, is supported in her belief that our nephew, who is studying to be an Orthodox priest, won’t actually be a real priest.
Second, our son, who is 13 and preparing for Confirmation, now has a reason to doubt the priest’s truthfulness.
So, what should I do? This isn’t much of a lie, as lies go, but he told a known falsehood to make a point. Should I ask him to correct himself in a later homily or the parish bulletin?
 
Full disclaimer: I don’t know the right answer. I can only tell you what I would do.

I would tell my son “Father So-and-so made a mistake. The correct teaching is x y and z because of such-and-such. Father said what he did to make a point. It was wrong, but we’re all wrong from time to time so I hope you won’t hold this against him.”

Not a perfect solution, but this is how I would handle it.

Edit: I edited out mentioning it to the priest because 1) you already did and 2) EricF is right
 
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It’s probably best not to assume the worst about his motives and not take that as intentional deception so much as imprecision in speech. And as such, don’t make more of it than it is. It was a misstep, not an existential crisis.

-Fr ACEGC
 
I agree with those who suggest you let this one go and call it imprecision rather than a “lie.” I suspect (and your priest might think the same) that the majority of the people who were at your Mass are only marginally aware of the Orthodox Churches and it would never occur to them to think the priest could be referring to them. Since this was Easter, the priest might have been trying to reach those who only attend religious services a few times a year and he wanted to emphasis that the Eucharist is not to be found in the majority of Christian congregations. (One of my former pastors always gave Christmas and Easter homilies that were very obviously targeting twice-a-year Christians and NOT regular attendees.

If number of other parishioners end up asking the same question as you then perhaps the priest will have to rethink how he makes a point.
 
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Just tell your son what the truth is.
 
Since those are Catholic Churches, then yes, a Catholic could receive Holy Communion at any of these Churches. There are more restrictions on some of the other sacraments.

But in the case of the OP, he is referring to Orthodox Churches.
 
I would let it go. It’s not worth troubling oneself over because it can be seen as a point of rhetoric.

Besides that, ask a good Orthodox and they will tell you, anyways, that they are the real Catholics.
 
Orthodox Christians are Catholic.

Although separate from the institutional Church, both Roman Catholics and Orthodox share a union of faith. Their Eucharist is valid. Their priests are in apostolic succession.

The priest was not lying, but referring to Protestant Churches. Whether the Anglican Church has apostolic succession or not, is still debated.

Jim
 
I think maybe if I mention it to him, or e-mail him, he might tell my wife that the Orthodox have real priests.
 
I think you should just let it go. There are books and other resources to settle your family dispute. Preaching is harder than you think and priests need our support, not our demands and criticisms after an imperfect homily.
 
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