Why would it? I doubt there’s only one Catholic church in the OP’s area. (Although depending on how active he or she is in the parish, or how long they’ve belonged there, it might kind of suck to leave)
It depends on what the “novel stuff” is, and on whether your participation is limited to attending Mass in that church (easiest solution: find a friendlier one nearby) or you’re more involved.
Have you spoken with the priest himself? I used to live in a parish which never could get Spanish-speaking catechists despite having over 70% Hispanics, because of the iconoclastia of most of the priests*; the one priest who “got it” that Hispanics like their medals tried to explain to the others and was about as successful as the multiple parishioners who’d also tried, but hey, at least we did try. In other cases, the new priest was doing things a certain way because they’d done them that way in his previous parish and was happy to find out that “here we do it this other way”.
- PSA: if you’re trying to get people who really, really, really like medals and images to do voluntary work for you, do not berate them at length any time you see them wearing a medal.
I would be very interested to hear what these “novel ideas” actually entail.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet: you can stop contributing to the church (and tell the bishop/Chancery Financial Officer why). If enough people in the parish do this, action will follow.
thumbs up!
Is this going to be one of those threads where the OP never comes back?
I’ve changed parishes when I’ve found a priest that I didn’t really click with. If there’s a large number of you who dislike this guy’s message, you could all complain to the bishop, but it’s still his call.
My current parish has 2 priests, one normally being a just-ordained priest learning on the job, so to speak. So we have a pretty constant revolving door as most years we get a new guy in and the previous year’s seminarian moves on to his own parish. Some are better than others.
StG
Yeah, unless it’s a Catholic parish in a traditionally very non-Catholic area (parts of the rural South have hardly any Catholic churches for example), loyalty or connection to the particular parish (as opposed to the priest) would seem to be the only reason to consider ‘action’ other than just going to another parish. Although it’s understandable one wouldn’t want to leave a parish where they know a lot of (lay) people.
But without describing what the ‘novel ideas’ are, it’s kind of a pointless discussion IMO. Our priest of the last several years is very liberal on topics which really have to do with the Church and can get outright political on ones which arguably don’t (on a ‘render unto Caesar’ basis). Maybe something like that is what OP means? That has made some people we know leave. But I think his ministry (not just the political tendencies) is also responsible for drawing a good share of new people brought by gentrification, attendance is obviously higher now than years ago. And we find him to be sincere and likable though we don’t agree with him on various things. Anyway there are 4 parishes within walking distance of our house. Ours isn’t even the closest, it just used to be when we lived elsewhere in town. That’s probably exceptional, but a lot of US Catholics live in traditionally heavily Catholic areas.
truthseeker3 has taken a vow of silence.
This might be effective in a Protestant church, but the money flows differently in a Catholic church.
Eh, he’s Catholic. He should get on his knees and ask Mary to talk to the Big Guy ;).
IIRC, the Catholic Church has placed a greater emphasis on parish ministry - you are supposed to attend the church in your neighborhood and be in community among people in your neighborhood (ties into the principle of subsidiarity) and ‘church shopping’ is more frowned upon. At least that’s how I understand it.
Didn’t Obama promise us that if we didn’t like our priest, we didn’t have to keep our priest?
What other people have said about religion in other threads doesn’t make it appropriate to threadshit here. Don’t do this again.
Please just report if you think someone is violating a board rule rather than commenting on it here. Thanks.
His last activity was posting this thread.
Faith healer would cover both sides.
Take it as a sign to leave the church and just be a good person without the brick & mortar.
They’ve been saying that for as long as I’ve been alive (a few months longer, actually), but “frowned upon” is not the same as “banned”.
One of the parishes abutting my mother’s had for a long time a pastor who would preach against “exploiters”, “abusers of the people” and “slavemasters” any time he could find a reason for it, and those are among the mild terms. After an incident in which the funeral of a business owner almost ended up in fistfights (the employees took offense at hearing their boss insulted at his own funeral), people from that parish started holding funerals in the cementery’s chapel, which was served by a different priest. That parish only had children’s catechesis for the first year he was pastor: the next year, everybody took the kids to whichever of the neighboring parishes they preferred. That’s an extreme case, but in that same town there are two parishes which for different reasons have a lot more involvement than the rest, and part of that involves people from other parishes: in the end, all parties involved prefer to have two decent church choirs which get loaned around than try to hold half a dozen tiny ones, for example.
Of course, but even that makes it easier for Protestants than Catholics, because in many Protestant churches that isn’t even really frowned upon. I mean sure some people tend to say ‘church shopping’ in slightly negative terms, but everyone has done it a time or two in Protestant traditions. In my Lutheran church, if there is a new person, it’s about 80-90% of the time they’ll mention they are ‘church shopping’ so decided to check this one out.
Every week, sit in the center of the pew closest to the altar dressed as Papa Emeritus
Not that differently. Insolvent individual Catholic churches have been known to be shuttered. And any particular church that sees a drastic drop in contributions would certainly draw the attention of the archdiocese - having roughly the same effect.