Our priest was talking about times when you challenge the moral authority and when it can be right. He compared it to the Cannonite woman asking Jesus to heal her daughter and refusing to leave and take no for an answer. She pressed the issue and Jesus told her faith was great. Father went on to talk about the "Vatican kicking American nuns around" and also said that if women were bishops or cardinals that the pedophile priests would not have been shuffled around from parish to parish being allowed to continue to abuse. He said that no Grandmother or Mother would have allowed that. I know priests are human and sin, but it seems like bashing of the Church in saying this stuff. I guess why be a priest if you don't agree with the Catholic Church. Am I over- reacting?
Maybe the nuns were not following church teachings either We are in a mess but we must pray to heal the wounds of the church
No, you are not over-reacting. In the early 90's I lived in a tiny town with one parish and one priest who gave homilies like that every Sunday. It is a painful experience. After I left, the diocese got a holy bishop and this priest was sent back to seminary for "re-education!" I hope it took. We need to pray like never before for our priests in this age of deception. Think of the damage one priest can do to the faith! And priests are the enemy's most coveted trophies.
I would not go back to this priests mass again. If women were priests or bishops then Christs teachings would not have remained doctrinally sound. Just another example of diabolical disorientation.
Thank you for the replies so far. I will pray for our priest. I left mass sad/mad in a state of confusion and not peace. On the way home, I told our child about how I disagreed with some of Father's homily. I guess that was me being an example of challenging moral authority. I have been Catholic my whole life but truly luke warm until a couple of years ago. I am trying to educate myself on the teachings of the Church and deepen my faith. I am still shaky on doctrine and dogma so I have a lot of catching up to do to be as knowledgeable as the people on this forum.
I had a similar parish experience in the early 1980s. The Pope was constantly being undermined, the bishop called a 'Jansenist' for advocating Eucharistic devotion and the prayer of the faithful (which he wrote) often included a prayer for a 'new brand of leadership' in the church, according to his own ideas. I remember being a lector and faced with reading this nonsense. Before standing at the lectern I prayed to the Holy Spirit to close the ears of the congregation. As I began reading the offending 'prayer' a baby began to scream, drowning out my voice. A friend of mine told me she approached the priest thus: 'Father I love you but I cannot in truth join in prayers which undermine the body of Christ - this puts me also in a difficult place, as I am not uniting with the Church at prayer.' She said it in a very jokey way. I believe she also told him in a smiley way that he was a heretic. Given that they both had 'right on' political views, I'm sure he didn't hold it against her. Joanne, I think that if you can find a way to do it, you should have a gentle word with this priest. Whatever his views, the pulpit is not the place to vent his frustration. If he knows that some of his hearers are uneasy at his words, he may be more careful. Perhaps he thinks that most of his congregation have poor doctrinal understanding and he can get away with this kind of thing. Now let me guess.... this priest is past middle age? Modernism is not generally interesting to young Catholics.
