Monday, January 10, 2011

Our Foreign Born Priests: How do you feel about them?

Anonymous has suggested a fine topic for discussion:

"How do people feel about the large number of foreign born priests? Has the priesthood become one more example of a job Americans won't do?"

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you really want an honest answer? Well, here's my experience and opinion (warning, it is a little coarse, but honest):

They're spineless kiss-ups who let their parishioners' walk all over them because they want everyone to love them so badly. They assert their cutesy personalities on all worshippers as if all of the worshippers were amused by their hey-i'm -a-likable-loveble-guy-with-an-accent antics. It doesn't fly with me. Just be the persona Christi when at the altar and stop fluttering around the sanctuary like an attention-starved maniac seeking the approval of a bunch of pin-headed worshippers nervously laughing at their lame antics.

Anonymous said...

My problem is not with the foriegn born priests themselves but with what the need for them says about the Catholic Church in America. What sort of community is so lame that it needs to import its leadership from abroad? What if you had to go Mexico to find someone willing to serve as your congressman?

Anonymous said...

It used to be that the priesthood was an occupation considered to be on par with medecine or law now it falls in the same category as lettuce picker. Actually it is lower than that, most catholic men would choose to be a married lettuce picker rather than a celibate priest.

standing maryanna said...

We had a foreign priest at one time. He was the polar opposite of the priests cited by Anon.#1 above. Our priest was a devout, unpretentious and holy man and we were grateful for his presence among us as "persona Christi"...

Not all foreign priests are to be painted by the same brush.

Anonymous said...

Was he as popular as Christ was in his times?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Jabuary 10th 8:24

LOL you think its only foreign born priest who asserts a cutesy personality? You should come to my parish where every Mass is a performance. Maybe my pastor is not cutesy but he sure as heck is a drama queen with a used car salesman personality.
Makes no difference where they come but how they are theologically formed.

Anonymous said...

Which parish is that?

standing maryanna said...

Please do not name specific priests or parishes. It would not be fair to either and I will delete those comments.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

that's a hard one to figure out...every parish!

Anonymous said...

i'm a tea-party rootin' tootin' catholic and i'm tired of all these foreigners comin to america. we talk american here. so tell all them latin americans to stop talkin' latin and learn how to talk american. i ain't no dummy. i know what they're up to. they wanna make me talk latin. well, i ain't cause i don't know no latin and i ain't gonna learn it. if i wanna talk latin, i'll go to latin america. i'm in america and i'll talk american. fool me oncen shame on you. fool me twice. well, you can't be fooled twice.

Anonymous said...

Dioceses get the vocations they deserve. Those that have remained orthodox have no challenges with respect to numerous young men within the diocese answering the call to the priesthood.

As for foreign priests, I have no issue with any of them as long as they are faithful to the Church and especially like them if they celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

Mark said...

The larger issue is the lack of sufficient number of native vocations in certain dioceses in our country, and an abundance of vocations in others. As Stu implied, not every diocese in the USA suffers from a lack of vocations - actually, far from it.

Why is it that some can, and some can't?

Anonymous said...

bigfoot doesn't care. he really doesn't! why do you people keep going on as if he did? it's pretty sad.

Anonymous said...

Stu and Mark are full of it. Some dioceses naturally do better than others in attracting vocations but there is nowhere in this country a plethora of vocations. When the number of vocations is compared to the number of catholics and the average age of most priests the situation is dire everywhere. I defy anyone to show me a US diocese that has newly ordained priests sitting around doing nothing because there are too many of them.