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
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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.