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joandarc2008
Guest
Two things not being taken into account (btw - I think it is a fine question but could be use a little more charity in it’s delivery but none of us is perfect)
- If the priest is delivering Eucharist along with the Sacrament of the Sick after Mass which is confidential he would not be able to stop and chat as Eucharist goes directly from the Tabernacle to the place where it is being given even when it is with the priest- and yes in a large parish - or in an a parish where you have those who are chronically ill you may have those that are receiving this and seeing their priest weekly or more
- Priests pray the Liturgy of the Hours - they are required to do certain hours which are in addition to those that the laity are encouraged to do. Depending on the mass time you attend you may be “bumping up” on one of his prayer times.
L
Like
Guest
Troll or bait???
Why are you pushing movies from a site that won’t pass “Web of Trust”???
mywot.com/
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JReducation
Guest
If your priest is a religious, he must get back to his community ASAP. If he is a diocesan, his duties are over as soon as he finishes the mass. The obligation of a priest, either secular or regular, is to provide the sacraments and preach the Gospel. That’s it. The rest depends on the job description given to him by either his diocese or by his religious community.
My experience has been that regular priests usually have a little more time, because religious communities try to schedule their ministries in such a way that they do not interfere with the religious life. It’s a better organized system. Secular priests are secular men. They have the same obligations, interests and activities as other secular men. Just as a layman leaves his job to go to his family, go fishing, go shopping or just get some rest, that’s the same case with a secular priest.
Whether the priest is secular or regular, he’s not there to be available 24/7. The secular priest has the freedom to do this, because he does not have community obligations. Free to do it is not the same as obliged to do it. All priests must be available for emergencies. That’s standard.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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Phemie
Guest
We had one priest for a while whose English was minimal. He could read it enough to celebrate Mass and to give a brief homily but beyond that… He would not stick around after Mass simply because he couldn’t carry on a conversation and felt absolutely overwhelmed.
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laszlo
Guest
Such case is exactly like in the Greek tale the father, the son and the donkey. Whatever they do, that is wrong.
If the priest mingles among men, some thinks he is homosexual
If the priest mingles among women, some think he is womanizer
If the priest mingles among children, some think he is pederast
If he does not mingles at all, some thinks he is unfriendly
The problem is, if the priest is not available in the confessional. To socialize is not his obligation
If the priest mingles among men, some thinks he is homosexual
If the priest mingles among women, some think he is womanizer
If the priest mingles among children, some think he is pederast
If he does not mingles at all, some thinks he is unfriendly
The problem is, if the priest is not available in the confessional. To socialize is not his obligation
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puzzleannie
Guest
how does “my pastor” translate “all priests”?
yes so many of the priests around here are in a hurry to leave after Mass because they have to get to one of the missions or other parishes they also serve and have barely enough time for a quick pit stop before they leave.
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StTommyMore
Guest
I have brought this question up. However, I am still waiting for an answer.
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damooster
Guest
Ah, so you must be discerning a vocation to the priesthood? Otherwise I’m sure you wouldn’t be blasting others as being cowards for not doing something you are not doing yourself.
I would love to join the priesthood but I have to take care of my debts first. Besides, priesthood is not the only vocation; many are called to married life.
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StTommyMore
Guest
You are reading much into his statement. If you think no one has refused the call due to cowardice, you are deluding yourself.
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cccw2009
Guest
Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is what I had in mind when I asked this question. I thought that maybe prayer might be one of the reasons.
Thanks to all for answering my question! I really didn’t mean to offend anyone and sorry if I did but I thought I was asking an honest question. I’m not trying to put down priests. I see where I could have asked this question in a better way. I live and I learn.
My parish is small and Father is the only priest there. We had some guests priests and they have left right after Mass also. It is not a big deal, really. I was just asking and thought this was a good place to ask. I do not want to ask Father and make him feel guilty or anything because he’s not doing anything wrong! Just asking out of curiosity here.
As I said, my parish is small, and so I go to the Cathedral for RCIA. My DRE told me to ask Father about the Rite of Acceptance, and she told me this three weeks ago!
I still haven’t gotten around to asking him and I was going to ask him after Sunday mass but he left.I knew that priests are busy and hard working but never realized just how busy. My lesson learned! I’ll just make an appoinment because I believe this will need more than a few minutes to address and I will respect his time.
I don’t know him very well and I’m not sure what kind of order he is but I do know that we have a lot of people who are listed in the church bulletin who are sick, so he more than likely brings them the Eucharist.
Again, thanks to all that answered and for opening my eyes to just how busy and dedicated our wonderful priests are.
I learn something new everyday!
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Geremia
Guest
You mean he disappears and doesn’t go to the confessional to do confessions as soon as he can?
Priests are incredibly busy! They have to say their Divine Office every 3 hours, attend to hospital and prison visits, etc., and most importantly say mass and do confessions! They are administers of the sacraments, and this should rightly be way ahead in their list of priorities than loitering and spending “time after Mass with his congregation.” Remember, Christ unifies our parishes and Church; we cannot on our own accord, such as with idle talk and visiting.
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JReducation
Guest
As everyone has said, some priests are very busy. But also remember what I said. If your parish priest is a diocesan priest, then he’s a secular man. Like any secular man, when his job is over, he wants to leave to do other things: rest, play, be with family and friends, shop, or do those little things that have been waiting for him since last year, like cleaning out a garage. Who knows?Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is what I had in mind when I asked this question. I thought that maybe prayer might be one of the reasons.
Thanks to all for answering my question! I really didn’t mean to offend anyone and sorry if I did but I thought I was asking an honest question. I’m not trying to put down priests. I see where I could have asked this question in a better way. I live and I learn.
My parish is small and Father is the only priest there. We had some guests priests and they have left right after Mass also. It is not a big deal, really. I was just asking and thought this was a good place to ask. I do not want to ask Father and make him feel guilty or anything because he’s not doing anything wrong! Just asking out of curiosity here.
As I said, my parish is small, and so I go to the Cathedral for RCIA. My DRE told me to ask Father about the Rite of Acceptance, and she told me this three weeks ago!
I knew that priests are busy and hard working but never realized just how busy. My lesson learned! I’ll just make an appoinment because I believe this will need more than a few minutes to address and I will respect his time.
I don’t know him very well and I’m not sure what kind of order he is but I do know that we have a lot of people who are listed in the church bulletin who are sick, so he more than likely brings them the Eucharist.
Again, thanks to all that answered and for opening my eyes to just how busy and dedicated our wonderful priests are.
I learn something new everyday!
If he is a consecrated religious, he has a family to get back to. Just as lay people run out of mass to go take care of their elderly parents, spouses, and children and attend to other family obligations, the religious has his own family.
You’re on the way into the Church. Be very careful. Unfortunately, some Catholics seem to believe that we have proprietary rights over priests and religious. Somehow, when a man becomes a priest or a religious (or a woman religious) that person becomes the property of the Catholic community. This was never in the mind of the Church or the founders of religious communities. Service is always properly ordered and availability is governed by common sense, in the case of a secular priest, or by the rule and constitutions of the religious community, in the case of a regular priest.
It’s also important to remember that in many cases, the priest has to be back at work on Monday morning. He does not have the weekend off and he might not have Monday off either. Usually, priests and religious have one day a week to do all the things that other people can do on Saturday and Sunday. They really need to make good use of their time on a Sunday afternoon.
I have a good friend who is a diocesan priest. He takes care of his mother and is a pastor. He has to run from mass to give his sister a break, because she’s married and has children. On Sundays, he bolts from the sanctuary to his mother’s house. On Monday morning, he has to be back at the parish. At 2:00 pm, every day, he bolts from the parish to his mother’s house, because his sister has to bolt to pick up her kids. They’re a tag team. The parishioners are still upset. They pull this “Persona Christi” nonsense. It’s not the theology that is nonsense. The nonsense is that we pull this card whenever we want to regulate our priests.
Having grown up Jewish and later becoming Catholic, I know guilt and I can read the guilt card in Latin and Hebrew.
Persona Christi applies when the priest is absolving and consecrating, period. It was never meant to be applied to every other ministry that a priest does.
Having said this, the Church encourages priests, especially diocesan priests, to be available to the people. It is her hope that, unless they are religious, they will be active members of the community in which they live, making the Church’s presence very visible. She is not happy with priests who hide all day long. However, she also recognizes that they do have their private lives.
In a recent interview that I read with Msgr. Giorg (can never remember his last name), the pope’s secretary, it was interesting how he described the Holy Father’s day. It is a day that is very structured and very business-like. It begins at a reasonable hour, around 9:00 am and ends at about 6:00 pm., with a break in the middle. The Holy Father himself breaks away for prayer, exercise, study, play his piano, write his books, enjoy the company of friends and even sneaks out on a holiday when no one is looking. He even has a lighter summer schedule. Why is that? He’s a secular priest. If he does not organize his daily routine, it’s not organized for him as is the case when you belong to a religious community or when you have a family. We all know what happens to people who do not organize their lives. They burn out.
Very often, you take advantage of those “down times” to do what you need to do, so that you can be available in the middle of the night, for the parish carnival, that evening meeting in the middle of the week, and the other things that are part of the job.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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ConstantineTG
Guest
Maybe he should remind his parishioners that taking care of his mother is in fact acting in Persona Christi. Unless someone in the congregation wants to volunteer to act in Persona Iohannes
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JReducation
Guest
Maybe he should remind his parishioners that taking care of his mother is in fact acting in Persona Christi. Unless someone in the congregation wants to volunteer to act in Persona Iohannes
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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joandarc2008
Guest
Now we just need to find someone that can read the guilt card in Greek.
To the OP - Don’t worry everything will come - take your time. Make an appointment and you will find that this time with the priest will be less rushed and probably open and honest and educational. May Christ’s peace be with you on your journey.
Pax,
To the OP - Don’t worry everything will come - take your time. Make an appointment and you will find that this time with the priest will be less rushed and probably open and honest and educational. May Christ’s peace be with you on your journey.
Pax,
M
m134e5
Guest
A priest is not just a sacramental ATM machine. He has a responsibility to celebrate the Sacraments- and that is his most important function…but as a parish priest, he also has a responsibility to reach out in additional, non-sacramental ways to his parishioners. He has been entrusted with the care of their souls- and that means being a good Christian witness to them (as everyone should to each other, but parish priests should be in particular).As everyone has said, some priests are very busy. But also remember what I said. If your parish priest is a diocesan priest, then he’s a secular man. Like any secular man, when his job is over, he wants to leave to do other things: rest, play, be with family and friends, shop, or do those little things that have been waiting for him since last year, like cleaning out a garage. Who knows?
If he is a consecrated religious, he has a family to get back to. Just as lay people run out of mass to go take care of their elderly parents, spouses, and children and attend to other family obligations, the religious has his own family.
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JReducation
Guest
You would not be happy in a parish run by friars or by monks then. They see their primary duty to be their community. When they finish mass or confessions, they are to return to their friary or monastery, not linger. This does not mean that they should be rude. It just means that they are not available on demand. As one major superior told his religious, their life is to be brothers to each other. From this brotherhood, they go out to the faithful, but when they have to choose, they must always choose the religious life over the demands of the parish. Bishops and parishes understand these conditions when they invite these communities to adminster their parishes.
If this is not acceptable, then they have to close the parish, which has happened. Many religious communities have had to close parishes, because the demands on their priests interfered with the individual’s life as a religious and the bishop did not have anyone else to take over.
Some religious communities of men had to leave parishes, because their way of life was not appreciated by the parishioners who beleived that the priests in the community were to be available 24/7. The religious community demanded that these men live a conventual life. This means that they disappear in order to fulfill obligations such as: community prayer, community meals, community recreation, community silence, community meetings, ministry to their own brothers, manual labor in the community, cooks meals, clean house, care for their elderly brothers, take care of the poor and other ministries of the community.
Your position would not allow them to do this, because it demands that the ordained be very available to the parishioners. The only other solution would be for the religious community to leave. Where does that leave the bishop and the parish?
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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joandarc2008
Guest
Yes the priest should be there for the care of souls - but does this mean that someone cannot call and make an appointment. In this case we do not have someone going to the priest and saying, “Father, I have to talk to you, it’s an emergency.” Priests are human beings subject to burn out as well.
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JReducation
Guest
It is also important to remember what the faithful have a right to expect from the parish priest and the expectations that have been created. They are not always the same.
It is appropriate here to speak of the call to Holy Orders, which is shared by all of the ordained: deacons, priests and bishops. They are called to do two things: celebrate the sacraments for God’s people and preach the Gospel. Everything else beyond that is not essential to the sacrament of Holy Orders. Many of the services that priests provide come with the territory called “parish work”. In other words, not every priest provides these services, because not every priest is a parish priest. There are priests who have never set foot in a parish and never will. They are teachers, scientists, enclosed monks, hospital chaplains or other. We have to be careful not to equate parish work with Holy Orders. Parish work comes with the territory, not with the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Then we must also remember that priests also have rights. Those rights are going to be different depending on their state in life. A priest may be a secular, usually called diocesan, or he may be a religious, also known as a consecrated man. The rights and duties of the secular priest and the religious priest are not the same.
The secular priest has the same rights as any other secular man or worman. He has family, friends, hobbies, and other personal activities. He has the right to enjoy them. When he finishes his duties, such as celebrating mass, he is free to do whatever he needs to do. If it’s a weekday, he probably has other duties around the parish. These may include sick calls, funerals, counseling, spiritual direction, administration, meetings and whatever else it takes to keep a parish going. When his day ends at closing time, he gets to go home, unless there is either an emergency or a prior commitment in the parish, just like the rest of the world.
Just as a parent leaves his home on Wednesday night to teach CCD or to go to a parish meeting, the parish priest will aslo leave his home to do the same. Just as a secular person takes a night to sit in front of the TV and vegetate, because he needs the break from work and family responsibilities, so does the secular priest. In addition, the secular priest is not bound to a community by a vow of chastity. Therefore, he remains morally bound to his biological family. Many secular priests live in the same diocese as their parents and family. They have the same moral obligation to visit their parents and take care of them as the rest of the secular faithful do. They are not exempt from this.
On the other hand, you have priests who belong to religious communities. We call them consecrated religious. They are no longer part of a biological family unit. However, they are part of another family. They have what are known as conventual duties. They have to pray with their brothers, recreate, work around the house, study together, perform other duties for the benefit of their religious community, go on retreat together, go on vacation together, attend community meetings, take care of their elderly and sick brothers, or give time to their newer brothers in formation. These men are not bound to make themselves available to the parish 24/7. When their day at the parish is done or when Sunday mass is over, they are expected to return to their community house and take their place in the community. They are not allowed to miss a community function when there is a conflict in schedule. If on that edge, the fraternal edge takes priority. They exist in the Church as priests and consecrated religious. The Church and Christ expect them to be faithful to their vows. Obedience is the most important vow that we religious make. Failure to respond to the demands of community life is disobedience. We promised to obey until death. We made that promise to the community and to Christ who speaks to us through the community that we join.
A Jesuit is first a Jesuit, then a parish priest. He serves in his parish according to the traditions and regulations of the Jesuits. The same is true of a Dominican, Franciscan, Salesian and so forth. This is his right. In other words, if the priest is both, a priest and a religious, he has the right to live the religious life without interference from the parish or the parishioners.
Part of his religious life may be to be available to the most needy. This may mean getting up in the middle of the night to hear an emergency confession. I say that it may be, because it’s not always the case. If you call the nearest Carthusian house ask for a priest to hear an emergency confession, you’re going to be told that they cannot do it. They cannot disobey their rule and leave their hermitage to do this, evne though they are priests. They are first of all hermits. They will refer you to the local parish. My guess is that they don’t even have a published telephone number or that they do not answer it. You may as well not call at night. Most enclosed houses do not make it a habit of coming to the telephone at any time of day. They usually have someone who does this during certain hours of the day only. This again is that point of rights. It is their right to be hermits, regardless of whether they are priests or not. Not all Carthusians are priests, that’s why I said that.
We have to be careful that we do not put expectations on priests that the Church does not impose on them.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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