Seminarians and priests: battered spouses, Part II

Seminarians and priests: battered spouses, Part II

I wanted to make a point clear in my thinking about the so-called “battered spouse” syndrome for priests and seminarians. This is not necessarily a liberal v. conservative thing. There are conservative dioceses where vocal, orthodox priests are bullied into silence and liberal, “Yes”-men priests are favored by the bishop, and vice-versa.

I will even agree (to a point) with Rocco that the problem in the priesthood is not just along conservative/liberal lines. There are conservative priests who themselves have a flawed understanding and practice of their vocation. Any priest who makes himself the center of attention, who succumbs to the temptation to be the focus of Mass5 20:34:24
2005-10-06 00:34:24
or gaudy shows of piety (like the priest in Roccocomment_type> 0 0 32093
carrie1104@sbcglobal.net
http://www.carrietomko.blogspot.com
152.163.100.202
2005-10-06 09:32:51
2005-10-06 13:32:51
Father Ethan, in the case of a heterodox bishop, the priest being his own bishop of his island parish is not such a bad thing, especially when the priest is attempting to follow the directions from Rome which the bishop is attempting to countermand.  It is just such a situation that causes me to shudder when the topic of “conciliarity” surfaces in Rome. 

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bmershon@lg.com

208.21.35.50
2005-10-06 10:28:26
2005-10-06 14:28:26
“I do know that in my brief experience that there tends to be the attitude among many priests, both liberal and conservative, that their parish is their own diocese and they are the bishop of their little island.  They donolic churches, where they disrupted Masses with their picketing.

They’re also spreading falsehood, as in their post about the priest in Westborough being pulled from the pulpit for opposing his bishop’s authority and Church teaching. The KTN blogger says, “It has been reported to KnowThyNeighbor.org that the Archdiocese is allegedly threatening local priests with the loss of their pensions if they do not support the initiative petition measure and lead their parishioners to sign it.” That is such a load of baloney, it’s laughable. You can’t just deny someone their pension willy nilly. You’d have to have a lot better reason for it, under the law. And why “pension”? Why not “removal from the parish” or “removal from active ministry”? This doesn’t pass the smell test.

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