Who can I write to?

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The_Epigone

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Hi everyone, I need some advice.

A priest in my diocese is on a warpath of heresy. He’s preached in his homilies that the Church is wrong about transubstantiation, that it’s a teaching best left in the middle ages. He’s angrily told my friends not to kneel for communion. And he’s doing this in the cathedral, the seat of our bishop. We’ve written to the bishop and he responded that he was ‘looking into’ the homily.

Then we see the priest again, still saying mass at the Cathedral a few weeks later!

My question is, who can I go to? Who is above this bishop and able to do something about this situation, [edited]? I don’t care if the answer is the pope himself, I’m not going to stop until something is done.

Any help is greatly appreciated, God bless!
 
The_Epigone said:
Hi everyone, I need some advice.

A priest in my diocese is on a warpath of heresy. He’s preached in his homilies that the Church is wrong about transubstantiation, that it’s a teaching best left in the middle ages. He’s angrily told my friends not to kneel for communion. And he’s doing this in the cathedral, the seat of our bishop. We’ve written to the bishop and he responded that he was ‘looking into’ the homily.

Then we see the priest again, still saying mass at the Cathedral a few weeks later!

My question is, who can I go to? Who is above this bishop and able to do something about this situation, since he is an ineffective coward? I don’t care if the answer is the pope himself, I’m not going to stop until something is done.

Any help is greatly appreciated, God bless!
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Be careful. Your post makes it look like you are only out for revenge!!

Also calling the bishop an “ineffective coward” is totally uncharitable and uncalled for.
 
The_Epigone said:
My question is, who can I go to?
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My guess is either the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or maybe your episcopal conference. I think benedictgal would know for sure, though.
 
There is a process that must take place, the Bishop isn’t just going to kick a priest out because some people make an accusation of something. If that is how it works, we won’t have any priests in our parishes today. Can’t you trust your Bishop and trust God? [edited]
 
The Congregation for Divine Worship may be a viable option (especially for kneeling during communion) but it is VERY important that before you would write them you are completely sure that your Bishop is not going to do anything. Sometimes, to ensure accuracy, Bishops and priests have to allow time before they are able to change things because it’s necessary to make sure that they are not making an impulsive or irrational decision. It is also possible that the Bishop has spoken with the priest about the matter and the priest has not taken the recommendations to heart yet (or isn’t planning on it).

You mentioned writing to the Bishop. Of course, what’s done is done, but it’s always good to remember a few things if you wind up writing another one. Bishops gets LOTS of letters full of concerns and complaints for all kinds of things. Make sure that anything you write to your Bishop is as unbiased, unemotional, and descriptive as possible. If not, the Bishop will be more likely to write it off or misinterpret it as just emotional ranting (which, this is not the case). Make sure you keep all copies of correspondence with your Bishop or your priest in case you do end up writing to the Congregation for Divine Worship. Lastly, when addressing the Bishop, you should only quote people with equal or higher authority–otherwise you are slightly talking down to them, even on accident.

Although many times it’s unsuccessful, have you tried sitting down with the priest and having a charitable conversation about what he says? Most likely he will not change his mind on the transubstantiation belief he holds, but it may be possible to help him see why you and your friends would like to kneel to receive Holy Communion. If you are able to speak with him, I’d study up with encyclicals and other pertinent information about whichever issues you have (again, this would be quoting people of a higher authority than him, rather than stating your opinion) so you are able to back everything up. After speaking with the priest, it may be good to right down a general summary of what the priest said for references in case you need to write a letter. Again, I must stress charity when speaking with your priest. I can tend to get a little snarky when people don’t understand kneeling for communion or whatnot, but if you let your emotions take over, you discredit yourself greatly.

I really don’t like hearing this myself, but sometimes the best thing you can do is be patient and pray. Pray for the strength to keep fighting battles as long as it’s for the Lord. Change always takes time.

I would recommend reading the encyclical Redemptionis Sacramentum to help you out on the kneeling thing. According to the Church, you cannot be denied Holy Communion because you are kneeling.

Keep praying for your priest! Clearly it seems as though he has lost his love for the Eucharist somewhere down the line. Even if he doesn’t acknowledge or embrace his Priesthood, he still is a priest of Jesus Christ.

It sounds like you have a lot of energy and passion about this! That is wonderful! Just make sure that the focus of this is all about Jesus Christ and not anything personal against the priest so all of your passion can be correctly funneled by the Lord.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice (and criticisms) so far.

[edited]Just today, my friends had this priest scold them, while distributing communion, saying “there’s no need to kneel.” The implication being there’s no need to kneel because this is not God. Perhaps I was still a bit angry after hearing that.

On the other hand, one thing that enables incidents like this is the political correctness preventing anyone from rebuking heresy. A priest is standing up and teaching blatant lies, undermining the faith of thousands, and people act like this is not a catastrophe! The bishop should not treat an issue like this as a matter to be quietly investigated, then swept under the carpet. He is responsible for those souls who he is leaving in the care of this priest, and I fear greatly for him!

As for the other advice, thank you very much for the information. We’re not quite at the point of using it yet. My friends and I are going to write both to the priest in question and to the bishop, again. Hopefully we will be able to do some good there. If, after some time, that doesn’t work, then I feel we would be morally bound to inform the Congregation of Divine Worship, or another authority in the Church.
 
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The_Epigone said:
Thanks everyone for your advice (and criticisms) so far.

[edited]Just today, my friends had this priest scold them, while distributing communion, saying “there’s no need to kneel.” The implication being there’s no need to kneel because this is not God. Perhaps I was still a bit angry after hearing that.
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You are reading too much into that. As much as he’s wrong to forbid kneeling, the norm in the US as stated by the Episcopal Conference is standing. The implications you are talking about are your own interpretation to what he said and I believe you are being unfair to this priest by doing so. He never said there is no God, yet you accuse him of such.
The_Epigone said:
On the other hand, one thing that enables incidents like this is the political correctness preventing anyone from rebuking heresy. A priest is standing up and teaching blatant lies, undermining the faith of thousands, and people act like this is not a catastrophe! The bishop should not treat an issue like this as a matter to be quietly investigated, then swept under the carpet. He is responsible for those souls who he is leaving in the care of this priest, and I fear greatly for him!
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Again, I don’t see much wrong with what the priest here did aside from what I already mentioned. It seems you are putting someone in a bad light for not living up to your own standards and you’re reading into what they are doing to justify your dislike for them. I could be wrong, from what you are telling here the priest had made no mention of these accusations you are hurling. You even call your bishop lazy and incompetent just because he hasn’t replied to your request in the time that you expected him to.

This is very un-Christian and just pride-filled tirade against the clergy. Granted the priest was wrong to forbid kneeling, it gives you no right to make further accusations of things they never said. Anything thats just “implied” is all in your mind.
 
The_Epigone said:
Hi everyone, I need some advice.

A priest in my diocese is on a warpath of heresy. He’s preached in his homilies that the Church is wrong about transubstantiation, that it’s a teaching best left in the middle ages. He’s angrily told my friends not to kneel for communion. And he’s doing this in the cathedral, the seat of our bishop. We’ve written to the bishop and he responded that he was ‘looking into’ the homily.

Then we see the priest again, still saying mass at the Cathedral a few weeks later!

My question is, who can I go to? Who is above this bishop and able to do something about this situation, [edited]? I don’t care if the answer is the pope himself, I’m not going to stop until something is done.

Any help is greatly appreciated, God bless!
Click to expand...
How long ago did you write to the bishop? Have you given the bishop a reasonable period of time to reply?

If not then be patient. Pray for the priest concerned. Await a reply from the bishop. I can assure you that this will not happen fast.

Before you go over your bishop’s head I would write a second letter. Give the bishop a good chance to resolve this. Make sure that your letter sticks to objective facts. Don’t fill it with your emotions. Don’t tell the bishop what is wrong - he can read and understand the objective facts. Don’t tell the bishop what he needs to do - he doesn’t need to be told what his role is.

Letters are better received if you can achieve the following: word-process it on your computer; set it out like a business letter; ensure it’s no longer than two sides; make sure your spelling and grammar are accurate. It always helps to get a third party to read it.

Keep a copy of the letter; you may need this later. Send the letter by a method by which (a) you get proof of delivery and (b) the bishop’s office will need to sign for it on receipt.

If you receive no reply from the bishop or no satisfactory reply after your second letter (give the bishop at least a month to reply) then you will need to consider whether you want to progress the complaint.

If you choose to progress it then you will need to write a letter to the Secretary of the appropriate Roman dicastery. You report liturgical abuses and heresy so you may wish to write to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (liturgical abuses) or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (heresy accusations). Only write to one. Once your letter reaches Rome the dicastery that receives it will decide whether to involve other dicasteries or forward the complaint to them.

If you do write to Rome follow the same processes: be objective; send a business-style letter as described above; send it in a manner so that you will know it’s been received. Again before you send it get a third party to read it and listen to their advice. Once you have written to Rome you will need a great deal of patience. They will handle your complaint but it will not happen quickly.

Any letter that you send to Rome should have enclosed with it (1) all correspondence you’ve sent to the bishop and (2) any replies you’ve received from the bishop. (Only write to Rome if the bishop does nothing or you are convinced he’s not taken appropriate steps.)

Finally, I would again urge you to pray for this priest. Give the diocesan bishop ample opportunity to handle the matter before writing to Rome. Just because it may appear to you that nothing is happening does not mean that it isn’t.
 
Constantine, thanks again for your reply. I think you might have misread a couple of the facts I presented though. You said:
He never said there is no God, yet you accuse him of such.
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He didn’t say it at that time, but in his previous homily he said flat out that there is no such thing as transubstantiation and that the Eucharist is not Jesus. That’s what I’m referring to.

From the second part of your response, I can only think maybe you didn’t read the part about the priest’s homily? If it was only an inappropriate remark during communion it would be a minor issue, but his homily stated that infallible teachings of the church were false, specifically that the Eucharist is not truly our Lord. That is the major issue, the other incidents are just related.

Finally, the Bishop did, in fact, respond to our letters. He said he was looking into the matter. 4 weeks later the second incident occurred. [edited] However, it seems pretty clear he is not doing his job in this matter.

In response to Matthew, thank you for your advice! We are indeed planning on writing to both the priest and bishop again, and seeing what will happen.
 
The_Epigone said:
Finally, the Bishop did, in fact, respond to our letters. He said he was looking into the matter. 4 weeks later the second incident occurred. [edited] However, it seems pretty clear he is not doing his job in this matter.
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I just read through the thread and I’m not sure I understand how you have concluded the Bishop isn’t doing his job. First, neither of us knows what his “job” entails. It doesn’t entail pleasing us or doing what we think should be done.

I do know part of the Bishop’s job is caring for his priests. You and I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, like if the priest is undergoing counseling or some kind of re-education. Bishop’s aren’t required to explain themselves to us.

I know this is very upsetting and listening to a priest preach heresy makes you kind of want to, I don’t know, build a fire around a stake, or something. Or at least tell him to go find another Church. But we don’t do that with sinners, thank the Lord, we do everything we can as a Church to reconcile sinners to God.

Maybe praying for the priest who seems to be in a spiritual crisis would be helpful. Maybe all your friends and you could meet before Mass for a special Rosary. Sic Mary on him, he won’t stand a chance!
 
ConstantineTG said:
You are reading too much into that. As much as he’s wrong to forbid kneeling, the norm in the US as stated by the Episcopal Conference is standing. The implications you are talking about are your own interpretation to what he said and I believe you are being unfair to this priest by doing so. He never said there is no God, yet you accuse him of such.

Again, I don’t see much wrong with what the priest here did aside from what I already mentioned. It seems you are putting someone in a bad light for not living up to your own standards and you’re reading into what they are doing to justify your dislike for them. I could be wrong, from what you are telling here the priest had made no mention of these accusations you are hurling. You even call your bishop lazy and incompetent just because he hasn’t replied to your request in the time that you expected him to.

This is very un-Christian and just pride-filled tirade against the clergy. Granted the priest was wrong to forbid kneeling, it gives you no right to make further accusations of things they never said. Anything thats just “implied” is all in your mind.
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Actually, the revised GIRM says this:
  1. The Priest then takes the paten or ciborium and approaches the communicants, who usually come up in procession.
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It is not permitted for the faithful to take the consecrated Bread or the sacred chalice by themselves and, still less, to hand them on from one to another among themselves. The norm established for the Dioceses of the United States of America is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling (Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, March 25, 2004, no. 91).
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Thus, the GIRM provides a choice for the communicant and removes the “catechesis” aspect that was previously in there.
 
benedictgal said:
Actually, the revised GIRM says this:

Thus, the GIRM provides a choice for the communicant and removes the “catechesis” aspect that was previously in there.
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Would you kindly provide an official source for this.
I keep seeing this around the internet, but the GIRM that is posted on the USCCB website is the older one.

I guess that until it is official, maybe we shouldn’t be quoting it, but that just me.🤷
 
Oneofthewomen said:
Would you kindly provide an official source for this.
I keep seeing this around the internet, but the GIRM that is posted on the USCCB website is the older one.

I guess that until it is official, maybe we shouldn’t be quoting it, but that just me.🤷
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That is the official GIRM for the United States. Furthermore, my copy came in two weeks ago from the USCCB. When I called the Bishops Committee on Worship, I was told that it is already in effect.
 
If the heretical priest keeps mentioning that that Transubstantiation isn’t true in his homilies, record his homilies. That way, you can send a letter to your Bishop with the recording, as the Bishop has to have definitive proof that your priest is a heretic.
 
benedictgal said:
That is the official GIRM for the United States. Furthermore, my copy came in two weeks ago from the USCCB. When I called the Bishops Committee on Worship, I was told that it is already in effect.
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Not doubting you, just wondering why it is not up on the USCCB website yet, if it is already “in effect”.

My thought was that maybe the USCCB was going to wait until the Missal itself went into effect, before changing to the new GIRM. At least that is the impression that the people in my Diocese have.
 
Oneofthewomen said:
Not doubting you, just wondering why it is not up on the USCCB website yet, if it is already “in effect”.

My thought was that maybe the USCCB was going to wait until the Missal itself went into effect, before changing to the new GIRM. At least that is the impression that the people in my Diocese have.
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It wasn’t up on their website because they are revamping the BCDW section. However, one of my best friends sent this to me:

new.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/roman-missal/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/

I have compiled a Word document highlighting the differences between the two versions.
 
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