The trial of Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn exposes a growing anger and disrespect that threatens Constitutional due process for Catholic priests.
“What Does the Priest Really Do All Day?” My apologies in advance to Father John Zuhlsdorf whose great blog, “What Does the Prayer Really Say?” is deservedly one of the most heavily visited and widely respected sites in the Catholic on-line world. I have much respect for Father Z and WDTPRS, and that respect is shared by his many thousands of readers.
However, that fact alone made Father Zuhlsdorf a target of ridicule awhile back. I became aware that someone had anonymously published a satirical blog to poke fun at Father Z. The blog’s taunting title was, “What Does the Priest Really Do All Day?” It didn’t last very long. It turned out that I knew the person who created the site, and challenged him on it. Alarmed and embarrassed to be so easily identified when he thought he was anonymous, he quickly took the site down, sending it to the ever growing trash heap of discarded websites in cyberspace. Then he sent me a note: “That site wasn’t a serious effort. I actually admire Father Z and his blog, and read it regularly.” Well, c’ est la vie!
What really caught my eye, however, was the question he was asking in his title. In my post, “The Expendables: Our Culture’s War Against Catholic Priests,” I described a situation I was in similar to that of Father Marcel Guarnizo. It was my first assignment as a priest back in 1982, in a parish badly splintered by lawsuits and factions. I was just a young priest trying to find my way along a treacherous path lined with the hostility of Catholics in a sadly divided, but otherwise wonderful parish. Shortly after my arrival, a small group of parishioners asked to meet with me. As the meeting started, one woman asked, “What exactly do you priests do all day?”
The question wasn’t an inquiry. It was an attack. I knew this instantly because as I started to provide an account of my very busy day, it was clear she wasn’t even remotely interested in the answer. The question was meant to be a grenade lobbed toward me to open the meeting. It was an invitation to all others present to proceed with the real purpose of the gathering: to vent their anger at my expense.
So I stopped trying to respond to the question. Instead, I pointed out that their anger could not possibly be aimed at me because I had just arrived. None of them knew me at all. The only common denominator regarding me and their hostility was the mere fact that I am a priest. I asked if any of the dozen people present could explain to me why they are so angry at priests. No one could answer the question. The only articulated response was denial. Later, I heard that I had “shut the meeting down” by refusing to stay on topic – the topic being my willingness to quietly and humbly endure a frontal assault.
So I’ll put the question to you, and would appreciate any insights you have if you wish to comment. Why are so many Catholics angry with priests? The anger isn’t just a reaction to news of the sexual abuse crisis. The anger I’m describing preceded that crisis by decades. Rather, I suspect, the abuse crisis was shaped and framed by that anger, and it shows. What think you?
THESE TWO PRIESTS WALKED INTO A BAR ONE DAY . . .
The priesthood in America has long been a subject of jokes and gossip in our scandal-driven media culture. I wrote of an event in my next parish in “My New Year’s Resolution About Gossip,” my last TSW post of 2010. It’s interesting that Father James Valladares picked up on this same account and used it in his great book, Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast (pp 118-119). The story is worth repeating:
“I arrived at St. Bernard Parish [now Parish of the Holy Spirit] in Keene, New Hampshire on June 15, 1983 . . . The parish was immense, for New Hampshire, at least. It had over 2,000 families, provided round-the-clock pastoral care for a regional hospital and trauma unit, three nursing homes, a college campus, a regional Catholic school, and a mission church about fifteen miles away – and I arrived to learn that I was essentially alone.
In that summer of 1983 there was a lot going on in my life, too. Just a month earlier, my father died suddenly at the age of 52. I had literally gone from presiding over his funeral Mass and caring for my family, to packing and moving to a new rectory and parish 100 miles away. A few weeks after I arrived and got settled, my sister and her family drove up from the Boston area to visit me. We still had some unfinished details over the death of our father, and two months earlier, my sister gave birth to her second child. I had the privilege of baptizing her in my new parish. While my brother-in-law unpacked my boxes of books, my sister and I took my two nieces for a stroll down Keene, New Hampshire’s picturesque Main Street. It was a beautiful summer day, and we had lots to discuss while pushing the stroller down the busy street.
By the middle of the following week, the rectory phone started ringing. First, it was a priest in a neighboring parish. ‘I just wanted to give you a head’s up,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard from two people that you have a secret wife and kids.’ I laughed, at first, but by the end of that week I wasn’t laughing anymore. Then the parish council president called. ‘We don’t need another scandal,’ he said. ‘People are calling me with a rumor that you’ve fathered two children.’ By then, I was furious.
We were able to backtrack who said what to whom and when, and learned that the ugly rumor began with that innocent Sunday afternoon walk with my sister and nieces. And ground zero of the rumor was one parishioner, Geraldine (long since forgiven, no longer with us, and not her real name!), who also happened to be out on Main Street that afternoon. Geraldine jumped to a conclusion, then jumped on the telephone. It was like a virus that spread from person to person, growing and mutating along the way. Poor Geraldine had no intention that her bit of gossip would spread like a wildfire. It spread everywhere.
I waited for a time when I was a little calmer to call Geraldine. At first she was embarrassed that I had traced the story back to her, but she was far more embarrassed to learn that my sordid stroll down Main Street that day was with my sister and my two nieces who had come to visit to discuss the death of our father. ‘Well, never mind!’ Geraldine said, ‘But we do have a right to know what our priests are up to!’
Yes, priests are public people, and perhaps there have been too many times when the Church didn’t know enough about what they were all up to. But what was missing from this story was any sense of trust and human respect – not to mention any benefit of doubt. A simple, ‘Who were those people you were with?’ would have produced an explanation and saved a lot of grief.”
MONSIGNOR WILLIAM LYNN, THE NEWEST CATHOLIC SCAPEGOAT
I thought of this story three weeks ago when Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn was convicted of a single count of child endangerment. Like many, I followed the case closely and was grateful to David Pierre and The Media Report for some superb ongoing commentary about the case that kept it in perspective.
There was a great deal wrong with that prosecution which bordered on persecution. Monsignor Lynn was not convicted of that charge because he is guilty. There was no evidence that he ever set out to endanger anyone. He was convicted because he is a priest, and like the story spread about me by Geraldine, the news media convicted him before he ever set foot in a courtroom. The trial itself was just pro forma. The news media built an “availability bias,” a phenomenon I described in “Catholic Scandal and the News Media.”
One Philadelphia defense attorney who reads These Stone Walls described this trial as “justice with an agenda.” She wrote that few in Philadelphia are now very proud of this “District Attorney with an ax to grind, and a judge who appeared to work for the prosecution.” When law is reduced to a lynch mob in this arena of decades-old child abuse claims, the jury is in before the trial even starts. Those who would tritely say today that Monsignor Lynn had his day in court and justice prevailed have no first hand knowledge of the prolific injustices that have permeated our justice system. Just see “Thy Brother’s Keeper” for a vivid example.
In the news interviews to follow, the true agenda revealed itself. SNAP’s Barbara Blaine let an outright lie prevail, claiming that there is substantial evidence that children remain in danger in the Catholic Church, and that the conviction of Monsignor Lynn on a single charge – despite his acquittal on all others – is evidence that “the Catholic Church’s cover-up continues.”
Two weeks ago in California, a man was acquitted of a charge that he savagely beat an elderly priest in front of numerous witnesses. The evidence and eye-witness testimony were clear. However, the assailant was found not guilty because he claimed that the priest molested him decades earlier. Whether true or not, that claim has never been tested in a court of law.
There are men in this prison with me serving long sentences for doing far less. To excuse this savage assault because the victim was a priest and the assailant claimed his own victimhood is a travesty of justice and, a dangerous signal of something I wrote recently in “David v. Goliath”:
“Those who have claimed to advocate for victims – some real, but many feigned – have created a whole new set of victims by dismantling the freedoms and civil liberties of a single class of citizens: accused Catholic priests. The outcome of the trial of Monsignor William Lynn in Philadelphia is the result.”
When the rhetoric of a witch hunt replaces reason and the rule of law in a modern day courtroom, priests become like an accident scene at the side of the road – spectacles drawing spectators, but never any presumption of innocence, never any benefit of doubt. It is justice by news media – aimed not at sexual abuse, but at Catholic priests.
The famous words of Sheriff Buford Pusser, quoted in “Walking Tall: The Justice Behind the Eighth Commandment,” now haunt this scene of wreckage. As Buford Puser stood before his jury, his lacerations glistening with blood, he summed up for them and for all of us the mandate for true justice:
“If’ you let ‘em get away with this, you give ‘em the eternal right to do the same damn thing to anyone of you.”
Send to Kindle
Hi Father. It takes a good deal of trust to ask the question. I know a priest – a very solid priest – who was accused of something similar. It spread through the parish like wild fire. Within 2 months he married, had 2 children, divorced, then came back to the priesthood.
You’re question about folks being angry with priests makes me wonder if I’ve been kinda hard on them. The current Pastor seems to take too much time off leaving adult religious ed in the hands of the lay folk. Daily Mass is around his schedule and not every day. If there’s a funeral then that’s the daily Mass. There’s no continuity I guess that’s what makes me angry …. upset.
And reading your blog makes me embarrassed at my anger. Thank you. I wish there was a way to take the angry words and turn them into Hail Mary’s, but that doesn’t seem to happen until after the damage is done. I went from a thriving parish to a small country Church run by a single priest. I will admit that I have thought, why does he have to take off right after Mass on a Wed and come back to the parish Fri afternoon. A few of us (me being very vocal) were upset that he took off Christmas week. This was discussed among ourselves.
No wonder there’s a shortage of parish priests, eh?
Akira, this comment was just read to me. It is exceptionally fair-minded, and obviously from a fair person with a good heart. The words need never be taken back, as long as there is a good heart behind them, and it’s never too late to offer a prayer for your pastor. Thanks for this great comment.
With blessings,
Fr. Gordon
Father,
When I see a priest, especially one in a cassock, I see a living, breathing testimony to the peace and happiness that only self sacrifice, obedience, faithfulness and Love of God can bring. It is not just Humanae Vitae and celibacy that anger so many against them- though that is a large part of it. A priest in America is a contradiction to our corrupt culture in many ways- I would say that humble obedience is the greatest offense. I have been very blessed with good priests in my life who were not afraid to preach Humane Vitae, or tell me that I could not attend a family member’s 2nd or 3rd marriage. If you guessed that I have been ostricized and hated for following their lead, you would be correct. Some where along the road most of them stopped attacking me for getting pregnant and starting loving my children- all 9 of them- (currently form age 28 down to 8)
Our times remind me of the Israelites’ enslavement in Egypt- except this time we wait for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May she obtained for you the grace to cooperate fully with all the gifts Jesus wills to give you. We will add you to our daily rosary.
May God be forever praised,
Jenny
Hello father and God Bless. Having worked and served priests for 20 years my motto is,”to know them is to love them”. I had the great honor to live each day watching the grace-filled life of a priest and their lives of constant service. I see them exactly as I see Christ and the Apostles. The mind set of this troubled world treats the Church and her Priests as the angry crowds treated Christ carrying His cross to Golgotha. “they hated Me and they will hate you”.
Father Gordon,
You asked why people are angry with priests. Catholics are angry with priests who tell then they should pray more and remind them that they are sinners. They like priests that do not challenge them.
About twenty years ago I was president of our Parish Council. Our pastor was transferred to a nearby parish. He confided to me that he had personal reasons for requesting the transfer. I still respect his privacy but I will say his reasons had nothing to do with any impropriety or wrong doing on his part.
The parishioners’ reaction his reassignment was outrageous. Some wanted to picket the Bishop’s residence and demand the pastor’s return. Some had even more outrageous ideas.. I managed to stop this without breaking Father’s confidence.
The diocese assigned a priest as ‘temporary administrator.’ This poor man had the nerve to suggest we spend more time in prayer during lent and wanted to plan a parish wide novena. (much to my chagrin I advised him that this would be well received – I WAS WRONG! ) Several prominent parishioners began a letter writing campaign against this priest to the Bishop. They sent copies to me as Parish Council President. They persisted in describing half-truths. At that time in our parish history we had a multi-purpose room which served as our worship area, the CCD (confraternity of Christian Doctrine) Classroom area, our social meeting space – even our Bingo hall. They wrote that this Temporary administrator heard confessions three feet from the congregation . This was technically true because the chapel area was directly off the multi-purpose room but it was actually more private that most confessionals in traditional Catholic churches. There were so many misrepresentation reported that eventually the Bishop sent a delegation to speak to the parish staff and the Council. The staff and the council was bullied by these prominent parishioners.
I cannot describe all the abuse his poor man suffered. I got dozens of calls daily either urging me to betray this priest or threatening me if I did not .”he will be gone and you will not have a friend in the parish. You will be shunned.”
These people almost destroyed this priest. Eventually he moved to another diocese.
It comes at no surprise to the rest of the world that America is persecuting it’s priests. It reflects the decline of America more than any other factor. As you once wrote so well, the same thing happened in Nazi Germany, in the same way, and for the same trumped up reasons. Kill the priests and any regime can more easily control it’s people.
Father, you’ve asked a wonderful question, beautiful for its simplicity, accuracy, and directness: why are so many Catholics angry with priests? I think, too, that you have correctly observed a feature of this anger, namely, that it precedes the sexual abuse crisis by decades.
Allow me to venture my own response to the question, one that I firmly believe, and will continue to believe until a better explanation comes along.
First, I think that it’s necessary to observe that there was a time when Catholics, and many non-Catholics were not angry with priests. That was a time not so long ago, if a person is old enough to have lived through the 1950′s. The recent declaration regarding the life of heroic virtue lived by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is timely because Sheen, at the height of his popularity, was watched by millions of Catholics and non-Catholics on television every week, even winning several Emmy awards. He was universally admired and enormously well received, and that admiration was not confined to Sheen. Priests, generally, were well respected in America.
Today, it is unthinkable that a Catholic Archbishop, however talented and articulate, would be given any opportunity to hold down a slot in prime time television in order to propound ideas integral to the Catholic faith. Mainstream media would rather do an investigative piece to find out how many priests in his diocese had been accused of sexual misconduct and what, if any, steps the Archbishop took to remove the suspected offenders from active ministry.
I think what happened shortly after the time of Fulton Sheen was that Americans, like most people in the developed world, allowed themselves to be caught up in the sexual revolution of the 1960′s. The Church had a response to it and, especially, a response to what made the upheaval of that time quite novel, the introduction and widespread availability of the Pill. The Church proposed Humanae Vitae and most of us rejected it.
One of the consequences of Catholics rejecting the teaching of the Church is that they rejected those who most visibly represent what the Church teaches, namely, the clergy. The priest, especially by his living out of celibacy, is a living rebuke to all those who prefer sex without responsibility. Even if he isn’t preaching on HV, the priest, committed as he is to celibacy, confirms that it is possible to live chastity as the Church would have us live it.
That is what breeds the resentment, the anger, and that is what explains why those who are so angry at priests cannot, when asked, articulate the reasons for their anger. They long ago gave up thinking that what they are doing is wrong. It’s the Church that is wrong, as far as they are concerned, and that means that Father, their parish priest, is the target of an anger as deep and unarticulated as the sexual impulse itself.
Malcolm Muggeridge commented that eventually HV would come to be regarded as the most important document of the 20th century. Muggeridge was a keen observer of his time, and so should not be lightly dismissed. But, if anyone is tempted to do so, they might cast their minds back still further to G.K Chesterton, another journalist whose insights might be fairly described as prophetic. He said that it was not the Bolsheviks whose revolution we needed to fear; rather, far more devastating would be the next revolution, one that would have its home in Manhattan, not Moscow, and which would involve the widespread rejection of sexual morality.
To the readers of their time, Chesterton and Muggeridge sometimes sounded like madmen. But, a couple of generations on, we can read them now and understand what they wrote better than did their contemporaries.
Today, the world has largely rejected a sexual morality grounded in the dignity of the human person, and, but for the continued presence of priests who teach and live an authentic sexual morality, the world would have its way.
I fear that the hatred of the Catholic clergy is going to grow a lot worse, barring an extraordinary intervention from heaven, because I don’t see any indication that we are moving away from the false ideas of sex and sexual identity that plague modern culture. Every priest in America and beyond could be a model of virtue, all the virtues, and the anger would not abate; it would only get worse. As our clergy – and our laity, for that matter – grow in the living of heroic virtue and holiness of life, the fury will increase.
There is no connection, really, between the sexual abuse crisis and the anger you have observed. Yes, people are angry over what a few bad apples have done and were allowed to get away with. But, that is not the anger you have observed and focused on in your question. That anger precedes the abuse crisis and, even when the abuse crisis has receded, that anger will continue. It will continue until we understand what Pope Paul VI was saying in HV; it will continue until we understand what John Paul the Great was teaching when he taught the theology of the body; and, it will continue as long as those who most visibly represent what the Church is teaching draw breath. Only when men and women live out their true dignity in marriage, that is, properly accepting of each other and open to the transmission of life, will the anger abate. Then, and only then, will they see their parish priest as friend, not foe.
Thanks Father Gordon, for food for thought and prayer.
I remember when John Paul II was receiving quite a backlash for having apologized for this, that and yet again the other misdeed of whatever individual Catholics of whatever age, the complaint being that the Pope is not to take on the responsibility for something he didn’t do, that such sins were obviously the responsibility only of those who committed them.
Such complaints against Pope John Paul’s apologies aggravated beyond measure those who were accusing all Catholics without exception for being guilty of crimes which many of those same Catholics had never even heard about, and the accusations became all the more reckless, spittle-flecked and full of hate.
JPII calmly waded into the midst of such mayhem and shrugged his shoulders, responding both to those upset that he had apologized as well as to those who had increased the pitch of their accusations. The Polish Pope said that it seems only right that the Holy Father himself take on this responsibility precisely as the Vicar of Christ. That dumbfounded me for the longest time, but I finally saw the wisdom in this.
Of course it is unjust to vomit a long list of expletives against the Holy Father as the Bishop of Rome as well as against the Church as the Body of Christ, making all Catholics everywhere personally guilty for all sins of all Catholics and, in fact, all non-Catholics, of any age, since Adam until the last man is conceived. And yet, it is somehow fitting to take this punishment, love making this reasonable.
Jesus entered into this world precisely to take on the guilt of all, confessing our sin as His own before our Heavenly Father, taking full advantage of the hell of our “availability bias” that only needed His incarnation in the womb of His dear Immaculate Mother to be put into action by us.
We hate real goodness, because in our weak fallen condition, we perceive this as an incrimination instead of an invitation to life. As soon as we see it, our deeply rooted “availability bias” is kick-started, and we are pointing fingers, projecting our own guilt onto others. We had to kill Christ to get Him out of the way. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ has to be done away with in like manner. As the Master, so the disciple, as it should be.
Just remaining faithful in such conditions makes of one’s very life an act of intercession which drags many, however much kicking and screaming, right to heaven, where they will thank you forever.
Anti-clerical power groups in whatever parishes, the anti-clerical mass media, a jury which doesn’t give a damn, freakishly unjust judges, bishops and chancery toadies who broker settlements without wanting to know the facts, and so on, are only symptoms of the “availability bias” which marches on throughout time. And faithful priests are right in the middle of the storm. It won’t be long before killing a priest because that priest is a priest will be a good excuse before a judge. It won’t be long before killing priests is thought to be worship acceptable to God.
But then, in this way, we get to drop to our knees and put our fingers in the nail wounds of Jesus, and our hands right into the side of Him whose Sacred Heart we feel beating, though still pierced open, He having this ever mysterious bias of being just so good and kind, just so… a v a i l a b l e .
My dear Fr. G.
I was born in Phila, went to catholic grade & high school, I am now 67 and when I was young, even into my adulthood, a priest was like God; we respected them, and kept our distance – as did they.
I strayed from my faith, then approx. 15 yrs ago came back and found that lots of people were “bff” with their priests, calling them on first name basis. It was like culture shock!
I don’t know; did we become too familiar with them….and find out that they are- after all – men who happen to be priests?
Is our fault? (parishoners/catholics) . Did we mistakenly have them on pedestals? forgetting they are men like our fathers and brothers and husbands who serve God directly, instead of families, etc.?
Somewhere in time – the relationship between priest and parishioner became fuzzy, I think some priests “let down their hair” a little too much too soon.
I am actually just following some thread of thought here….. I don’t know what happened, why people attack priests and actually look for things that they can use to ruin their lives and reputations. I think there is no specific reason, except that it goes along w/the way the world has become…Godless….
I have some very special friends who happen to be priests and I pray every day for them and for all priests – for this to stop. But it is like a run away train. People look to others to find fault and at the same time ignore their own…it feels better!!!
God bless you Father, your writings are so thought provoking and challenging…as this one is. I pray for you each day. God Bless you.
I think it’s because God loves his priests so very much:
Blessed are those who endure persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they have slandered you, and persecuted you, and spoken all kinds of evil against you, falsely, for my sake: be glad and exult, for your reward in heaven is plentiful. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12
I just finished reading Fr. Valladares’ amazing book. It brought out a range of emotions. I felt encouraged. I was also challenged to constantly remember that priests are human, but also stand in the place of Christ. I felt enraged at the injustice so many priests have received but also sorry for priests who have fallen in big ways. It’s an amazing book that is filled with so much I want to read it again after a bit.
It’s got to be so hard to a priest in our times which such hatred at every corner, but they need to hang in their because their reward will be great in heaven.
Personally, as a Catholic, it is a constant battle to refocus on why we are here. “Oh yeah, I forgot.”
God bless the great Fr. Zuhlsdorf for battling for priests and for the Faith day and day out. He certainly has my prayers. Plus, his blog is fabulous! I don’t know how he does it all!
God bless and keep you, Fr. Gordon. Hang in there. (Hello to Pornchai and Skooter.)
Hi Fr. G,
When I was a teenager, I read of a long-ago Saint who would kneel in the dirt and kiss the footprints left by any priest who passed her in the street. The good priests I know today would likely recoil with aversion to such a practice; they are acutely aware of their personal failures and shortcomings. They’re human (gasp!). In my opinion, reverencing Christ in our priests means we should help them be holy, not expect them to be saviors and then attack or avoid when they’re not.
I wish more priests would embrace their authentic masculinity and boldly stand up for themselves and their family (us). Actually, that’s not fair of me to say. A number of priests do, now that I think about it. Thank God, literally.
This topic reminds me of when I worked in corporate America, and a favorite past-time of many female co-workers was to publicly bash their husbands. This is a different shade of the same garish color, no?
Pray for us, Fr. G, and greetings to Pornchai!
Dear Father, I live in a small mountain town and belong to a tiny parish where we LOVE our priest. I don’t know anyone who behaves or talks in the vile ways noted in your article. I am so sorry to read about these things and especially sorry for the people who do them. Surely they need our prayers. I probably see through rose-colored glasses because I have been a Catholic for two years. I know my husband, a Catholic for 1-1/2 years, feels the same. We give thanks every day for our priest and our wonderful Church. In this small community we have had 30 adult converts to Catholicism in the last 5 years. That is a lot for such a small place. I think slowly, some people are starting to realize that we have found something wonderful. We have found the better part, and it will not be taken from us!
Monsignor Lynn should have been charged, AT THE MOST, with some form of negligence, which the prosecutor and the prosecutor-in-robes might have had trouble proving.
I don’t know the answer either, dear Father. I wish I could tell you. I, too, am a cradle Catholic. My mother was a convert, but she and my dad taught us to be respectful of priests and to pray for them regularly and I do.
I can remember as a child hearing people complain about little things, but it seemed like normal human frailties. It’s rather discouraging that parish priests seem more intent on rushing off on their “day off” that they cannot even say one short public Novus Ordo before they go. I do not begrudge them time off, but when I discussed this with a priest friend, he agreed with me that priests are like mothers: they have to be available for their children 24/7.
Recently, we have been attending a Latin Community parish with FSSP priests. The community admires and supports them. These two priests truly give their all. I don’t know how they find time for all they do. They spend so much time in the Confessional, for instance, that it’s amazing to hear that they also make sick calls, bless homes, say Masses at other chapels and churches in two dioceses, give fantastic sermons, and still make appointments to counsel people, among many other things. In fact, they encourage everyone to make at least a monthly but better yet a weekly Confession. I do go before Sunday Mass each week and my prayers are not only in thanksgiving for His Forgiveness but also for all the WONDERFUL priests who give us the absolution and His Holy Body in Communion.
You are one of those wonderful priests, Father MacRae. Don’t worry too much about why people direct their anger at you as a priest. Perhaps we should just give this problem to God and simply do our best to follow our vocations to the best of our abilities. I thank God for you, Father. I pray for you. Your priesthood is very precious and beautiful in the eyes of faithful Catholics. May He grant you His peace. Thank you for being faithful too despite what has happened to you. I admire you so much. Hang in there! We love you!
Dear Father,
Many persons, even some liberal catholics, hate orthodox catholics and priests because they want to free themselves from the shackles of conscience and morality, and fashion their own brand of religion, far from the Call of Sinai. Those persons are ready to believe all the errors and lies on the Catholic Church to justify and feed their hate. Those persons do not want to believe in sin, in hell or evil anymore, and think the propaganda that say that the Catholic Church is hateful, bigoted, causing all wars is true. There are many enemies of the Catholic Church right now. In Nigeria, the killers of christians are encouraged by the lack of condemnation coming from the rest of the world.
I am angry with priests (or, more correctly, one or another priest in particular) when a staunch saintly pro-life warrior friend of mine is told by a priest that he’s “too intense; I’ve seen people like you commit suicide” because he has been jailed for doing no more than kneeling and praying on a public sidewalk. Or when devout Catholics are denounced as “hate-filled Pharisees” from the pulpit during Sunday Mass because they try to inform parishioners that a candidate for parish council president is on the board of Planned Parenthood. I am angry when a priest publicly posts a CV on LinkedIn that describes his former role of secretary to bishop as “Executive Manager to CEO”. I am angry when a priest lists his name on the parish bulletin as Rev. Dr. X, PhD, as if the title Father were not the most beautiful and sufficient one in the world (or when this same priest denounces The Splendor of Truth as a pitiful work of poor reasoning). I am angry when pro-life people are arrested for showing the truth of abortion in public and they receive not support from their bishop but public support for their persecutors. I am angry when a bishop has my dying friend’s name listed in the city newspaper as a priest against whom an accusation has been made, and does this without even informing him in advance. In short, I am angry, but more sad than angry, when priests behave like wolves among the sheep. To address the anger I remind myself that priests are subjected to far more vicious attacks of the devil than are laymen and I share their culpability because I have not prayed enough and made reparations for them.
The answers are simple. First, Jesus told us that a servant is no better than his Master… If they hated Him, they will also hate you too… Many do not take their religion seriously at all… I say religion and not Faith… because few have Faith… even fewer – Belief…
If we actually Believed in Jesus… We would be living our Faith… Simple as that… But instead, I see many who call themselves Catholic come to Mass late… and leaving early… many even sit on the first row to receive communion first to they can leave sooner… Save your time – and don’t bother coming at all… The Lord said He is seeking true worshipers – who worship Him in spirit and in truth… If you are just checking a box, save your check… It dosen’t mean a thing… LoL…
They hate for the same reasons Henry VIII hated St Thomas More and St John Cardinal Fisher… Because they wouldn’t tell him his sins were ok…
Most of these you worry about are children of the devil… They have no idea they could actually live the Faith… Most wouldn’t want to live the Faith, if they did realize the Faith can actually be lived… What they really want is to live in sin, and be told that it’s ok…
If any of these were any part of Christ they would be willing to forgive you 7 x 77 times…
Just count your blessings that these children of the devil haven’t drawn and quartered you – as Priests were drawn and quartered in 16th century England… They would if they could…
Fr Gordon,
I was recently at a family gathering and heard an earful of anger directed at priests in general. In this case, the rant-er was a usually loving person who is (I think) hurting because her actively gay son is being “shut out” of the Church. She always was a feminist and I think a lot of the anti-priest and anti-Catholic attitudes come from the Church’s strong stance on social issues. Societal changes have hurt many of us in so many ways. The latent adolescent backlash against authority comes out at you guys. Just remember, the World “hated Him before you.” Most of us are not angry, we’re grateful. The older I get, the more in awe I am of priests. So often I hear (and in the past said) critical things about particular priests. But in all of my 56 years as a Catholic I have never once heard a priest criticize how a lay person runs his/her life or gossip about us.
Father, I wish I could tell you why the laity are angry at Priests. I myself am greatful we have you. I’m the head of our Parishe’s Spiritual Motherhood for Priests Apostolate. I have had to ask some ladies to find another Ministry. They are so angry and downright rude when it comes to you our Priests ! Thank you for posing this question I plan to look into it at my Parish.
Please be assured of my daily Prayers. Thank you for showing us, that ” you are a Priest FOREVER”. Hang in there Father and keep doing what you do.
God bless you,
Cheralyn
I put the post below on the Reparation to The Sacred Heart FB page. I believe I needed to post it here as well.
I ‘received’ something in prayer last week & have spent the time since then praying for the courage to post, & ‘testing’ ….”The Laity in the Catholic Church bears a great responsibility for what’s happened to our priests & Church over the past 40 yrs. We have not prayed for them as we were taught to do. WE (Laity) need to repent, & directly apologize to every priest we come in contact with, & promise our prayerful support in reparation for our neglect. No matter who the priest (Bishop) is, no matter what they are doing now, it’s our duty to pray for for them. What they do with the many graces they will receive is between The Father & them.” I did this myself last Sunday. I asked the priest (total stranger to me) for his forgiveness for my neglect to pray for priests. Then I thanked him for saying “Yes” to Christ for his Vocation. He looked stunned!! Then I told him what I had ‘received’. He told me “The Spirit moves where it will. Listen when you pray & thank you so very much!” I sat down at this machine wondering where to post this & “accidently” hit a key to this page. “Blessed Be His Most Sacred Heart”! The Holy Spirit will be pouring out His Gifts even more now. But we have to listening & accepting. (and testing). I had been praying to JPII for intercession.
Like
Dear Father, You ask why people are so angry at priests and I say I don’t know.I am a cradle catholic and have been fortunate enough to live in a parish here on Cape Cod with a pastor who is about 69 years old. He is a holy man and a true pastor in all senses of that word. He has opened an Adoration chapel here and now it is running 24/7. But not everyone in the parish likes him and respect him as my husband and I do. They have problems with him and maybe it is orthodoxy. I have heard comments and I want to yell he is a holy man what more could we ask for? I want to say that obedience is and has always been a part of our church. But to say the word obedience to some people is almost like saying a curse word. I am not a blind follower. I love our dear Lord and am only coming to realize how much he loves me and loves all of us if we are only willing to open our hearts to him.
When you say that the anger at priests goes way before the sex abuse scandals, I agree I am 64 years old and I remember a time when a pastor in a parish was like a king. But kings can engender resentment and revolution. I grew up with the notion that a priest was sacred because he had the grace of turning bread and wine into our Lord Jesus.His hands were sacred because he gave his whole life to God and to the church. But some of those priests were unkind, proud and lacking compassion but even so, we knew they were special men. I don’t understand the anger towards priests any more then you do. But when people are angry towards priests they often put forward their own problems but then again that is 10 cent psychology. So Father I couldn’t answer your question . But God’s goodness is always present for those who will take the time to see it, I have spent many years not seeing His goodness but He has given me the grace in the last number of years that I know His love and I don’t understand the mysteries in this world but then why should I? It is his world. God bless you Father.
Jeanne Ewing
Father, I have a sibling who has a very bad attitude toward priests and the consecrated religious. I have no real idea why. On the few occasions we watch TV together (the programs (pogroms?) chosen by my sibling), the chosen TV shows frequently assault religion and Catholics in particular – a very distressing trend. Perhaps this constant drumbeat is informing the opinion of other TV viewers as well. I find it a sad irony that the very persons most qualified to answer your question are the ones unlikely to read your posts.
Dear Father Gordon,
We are fortunate to live in a part of the country that isn’t so virulently anti-Catholic. That is really what causes the anger, I think. People disagree with church teaching, live in ways contrary to it, feel some guilt (which is a blessing when you are going the wrong way,) and turn their defensive resentment to the nearest symbol of the Church – Her priests.
The people who mark “Catholic” in the blank for “religion”, are many times not. When Mr. Kennedy assured voters in 1960 that his “faith” would not affect his decisions, he wasn’t lying. It doesn’t affect the lives of too many “Catholics”. That’s why the politicians aren’t worried about the “Catholic vote” the way they worry about the “Latino vote” or the “Women’s vote” or the “Youth vote.”
Sometimes it seems like God intends for his priests to walk in his sorrowful footsteps, abandoned, betrayed and persecuted.
God bless and keep you and all of our good priests. I love you all
Kathy
The Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed, despised, for in this Sacrament, the Church of God and even God Himself is scorned and despised since He is represented in His priests. The Devil will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way; he will labour with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation and will corrupt many of them. These depraved priests, who will scandalise the Christian people, will make the hatred of bad Catholics and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon priests.
This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous suffering to the good Pastors of the Church, the many good priests, and the Supreme pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth…
Fr. Gordon, thanks for writing this. I agree with you. I made the mistake of expressing my thoughts on Monsignor Lynn along the lines of what you have written (including called him a “scapegoat”) and was almost lynched myself.