Bad Form, priest. Bad Form

So an Australian Roman Catholic Priest has revealed a secret.
He is married.
He has been secretly living a double life--for a while.

Yep. I have a glass house.
And, yep. I am going to toss a stone.

Not that he got married--though there is something I would question as to why he waited so long to finally commit-not very fair to the woman or the church.
But that's not my stone.

CNN reported that the majority of parishioners and whoever else they could get to share an opinion had decided that priests should be permitted to marry.
Thanks for that authoritative and well-researched insight CNN.
But that's not my stone.

The priest piled it on.
***warning this is the stone***
He needed to divert the pressure.
He needed a spin.
So he played the celibacy/pedophilia/i'm a healthy priest card.
Oh, and there is one more point--he's going to write a book exposing all the problems of the church and all the double lives that the majority of the priests are living.

Why not just go be with your wife?  Do you really need to justify your choice by hiding behind the sins of others?

Bad form priest, bad form.

blacksheepdog? the priest formerly known as corapi

Okay, I admit.  I spent a few minutes watching the latest priest who leaves with a chip on his shoulder scandal.  I even listen to an audio byte.
I will never get those minutes back--crap.

I searched 'blacksheepdog' on google and was directed to a belgian puppy website.
Give it time and a few twitters and a few hits and he'll be running his web diocese.  Remember the bishop who began a virtual diocese back in the 90's?  What was his name? And then the guy from Miami and what about that fellow in Chicago and the other guy out west who started his own church--all this year right?

There is a huge story around this one, the bad dog priest or black dog priest or sheep dog--whatever his new name is (it reminded me of the artist formerly known as prince--come to think of it perhaps his new name ought to be the priest formerly known as corapi)  This one is a carefully orchestrated leaking of scandal, rumor and extortion.  Probably movie rights have already been discussed.

So where does this leave us?
Obviously I don't know the entire story--nobody ever will.  But there is one deflection that is being floated by his camp and it goes like this---Others are at fault here not me!   Should we follow the deflections and look at the faults of the church and the bishop(s) and the magisterium as he insuates? I use to do that, it's really easy and you don't have to look too hard to find the faults.  But it's nothing more than a diversion and probably, in the end demonic.  When I first left the ministry and felt unwelcome and had no home--it was easy to ferment and find fault and blame.  Come on--man up! or priest up at least.
Finding faults is nothing more than preparation for blame (on a variety of levels)


We find faults with people all the time.  Just drive 10 miles in traffic.  Just sit in a different pew in church.  Just go visit family for more than 3 days.  You get the picture.  And it is easy to focus on our faults--I weigh too much or too little.  I'm bald.  I'm gray.  I'm not smart.  I never finished that project.

Really, finding faults is the way to spiritual depth?

I have no suggestion for the whats-up-big-dog-expriest--except this--don't leave the Church.

  

Playing the Ex-Priest Card

Recently two ex Roman Catholic priests have been part of  their own media blitz campaign.
The first was a fellow from Miami who had a popular following in the media world.  Photographs of him on a beach with his love were circulated world wide.  Soon after he left the active ministry, married, and became an Episcopal priest.
I could empathize.  Though not on the same level by any means, but when I left the active ministry to be with my wife (of thirteen years now) we encountered not the cameras snapping photos but  instead people pointing at us while we stood at the deli counter.  There even was the occasional anonymous letter.  I must share however that the strangest reaction was that someone went through our trash--none of our neighbors--just ours.
Like I said I could empathize.
I could even understand the priest going over to the 'ecclesial cousins' house to stay.  We did the same. At one time I knelt down in front of an Episcopal Bishop as an ex-Roman Catholic priest and publicly professed allegiance to the Anglican/Episcopal Church.  When I stood up I was still an ex-Roman Catholic priest but now I had incurred an excommunication. 
Still, I could empathize.
Until recently.
Now the priest is out of the faith closet and is now bashing Rome.
And the media loves it.  After all he is one of theirs.
You left once--why keep stirring the pot?

I know why.

The second ex-priest in the news is one who is also comfortable having his name in the limelight.  This biblical scholar and leader of the modern day historical Jesus debate continues to question the divine nature of Jesus Christ.  He says he is Christian.
Okay, my degree is not in biblical scholarship and I am not entering into an academic or theological debate.  I don't have that gift.  I do know that if you don't believe in the divinity of Christ and His resurrection then you got a lot of theological work to do--let alone soul work.
Why did CNN run his story second to the unrest in Libya?  Amazing when you think of it.  Just float the headline out there that says--God did not become human.  He did not love His people by becoming one of us. He did not conquer sin and death.
Wow--talk about a quick ping from satan?

And here is the kicker--you don't even need to play the ex-priest card to attack the faith or the church.
Think about it.

Leaving the Church

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call asking me what I thought about the latest news concerning an ex roman priest who wrote a book.  He was making his way on the morning news shows telling everyone about his life, his love, his leaving Rome and going to England. 

                I have no problem with a guy leaving—remember, I have a glass house.

                I have no problem with a guy wrestling with love and celibacy and all that—I know it all too well

                I even have no problem with a guy who decides to go over to the cousin’s house and hang—I also became an Episcopal priest when I left and felt as though my family and I had no home.

                However, I do have a problem with the argument he is using—and sadly enough I also used it at one time.  It went something like this:

1.       Rome shouldn’t be a voice of morality.  (Men with pointy hats ought to stay out of the bedroom)

2.       Did you know that there was a time when the Popes had mistresses and children?  So why should the church now require celibacy of its clergy?

                Let me get this straight--"I don’t want to follow (or belong to) the Roman Catholic Church when it comes to some things but I will appeal to that same Church's history when it did something in the past that I agree with and fits my life today. " ??

                Really?

Light and getting out of Dodge

My son and I loaded the pickup truck with our overnight gear and headed out.
Out of the diocese that is.
It felt good to get away from this week--to get out of Dodge.

A few hours later and we were at Uncle Len's.
After a quick rest stop at his house we headed to church for Mass.
There we sat in the front pew and listened to the priest who happened to be....Uncle Len.

He preached about people who were the Light of Christ in his life and why they were the Light of Christ.

I glanced at the credance table and saw the familiar chalice--the silver one with the Apostles and the deep red background.  I remembered years ago of concelebrating Holy Eucharist with that same chalice.

Uncle Len was my first pastor.  He had me when I was a snot nosed pushy kid out of seminary.
Come to think of it--he's a rare breed.  He is what guys referred to as 'lifers'--the ones who entered priestly formation as a freshman in high school.  I'm not sure if there is such a program anymore, anywhere.
Yeh.  Len put up with a lot from me.

He was the last priest that I actually prayed in community with--as a priest. 
I wonder how many priests living in rectorys pray together.  (Then again, I wonder how many priests are praying.)

Uncle Len has been a light in my life.
I am not sure you are aware but there exist unwrittend codes in the clergy world.  One of those codes is you don't check on a guy when he leaves.  You drop him.
Len didn't.  In fact the reason he's called 'uncle' is because my son has known him his whole life.
Len was the one who provided a church for my son's baptism.  He was the one who would travel and visit.  And he was the one who sat quietly in the waiting room at the hospital with me, awaiting word on my wife's surgery.
...the Light of Christ.

Real Prayer is faster than 4G

One of the activities I did with high schoolers on retreat was known as the 'cell phone challenge'  It was born out of my getting tired of watching them glance at their phone or even commit the sin of blind texting.
So I decided to use the phone as a retreat prop. 
And it went something like this...
They paired up and the challenge was for one person to text the Hail Mary to the other person's phone.  While they competed I used whoever didn't have a phone (through the years that number decreased) as a 'reciter'  The reciters simply repeated the prayer, again, and again, and again until someone yelled that they received the text.  Then I had that person read it aloud--usually whole sentences were missing and often times there was a wild morphing of the Our Father and Hail Mary.
Many of them didn't even know the Hail Mary--(yeah religious formation!) but that is for another posting.

Funny though--the reciters felt like they prayed--and the texters didn't. 
Real prayer is faster than 4G.

I picked up a bunch of copies of the Pieta prayer book and spent the last couple of months distributing them.  Originally intended for just the high school kids, soon catechists, and other adults were also asking for them.

They were so grateful.
--all it was was a blue prayer book. 

Their souls were hungry.

Take a prayer book and sit before the Blessed Sacrament-treat your soul.

As a deacon and later a priest I was required to pray everyday the Liturgy of the Hours--the prayer of the Church.
I failed miserably at doing it.  There was a joke that you should buy ribbon insurance so when you died in the rectory someone would sneak in and update your prayer book--to make it look like you died cloaked in sanctity.
When I was released of my priestly life by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict--I was released from the promise of celibacy and the obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

Now, as a husband and dad--i pray them more than I ever did as a priest.

Two other prayer books have my attention now.
The Raccolta
The Blessed Sacrament Prayer Book

If your looking ahead to Lent--dust of the books and ready the knees.