Last month I wrote about how many Catholic Churches are being vandalized or burned. While writing that article I began to reflect on another topic coupled with our churches.
Church buildings are an inanimate symbol of the Catholic Faith. Our priests, however, are living symbols of our Faith and they too are under assault.
We should not be surprised at this. The fallen in this world need not be attacked by the devil. He already has them. He focuses his attacks on those he has yet to claim as his own. That puts our priests in his crosshairs.
Over the last year, I have had the opportunity to talk to several priests in my diocese. The last 18 months have been very challenging for them. As I have inquired about how they are doing, I am surprised to learn what they must sometimes endure.
From the World
Most of us would expect attacks on priests by the secular world. When listening to the priests in my diocese, I was surprised how.
One priest commented to me that lay Catholics can interact in society without drawing attention to themselves. Priests, just by their clothing, become obvious targets.
Most of us can get a meal at a restaurant in relative peace. We would never expect a waiter to ask us, “How’s Jesus?” in a mocking tone. However, this priest shared that this has happened to him on more than one occasion.
Our priests are marked men while wearing the traditional black with a white collar for a diocesan priest, the white robes of a Dominican, or the brown robes of a Franciscan. Regardless of the order, our priests are in plain sight which draws attacks.
Sometimes, however, questions are not intended to mock. A protestant waiter may ask in all sincerity, “Are you saved?” This actually offers an opportunity to witness the Faith. Unfortunately, even politely presented questions and comments are sometimes disingenuous with the intent to humiliate.
From Within the Church
We would expect attacks form outside the Faith, but attacks on priests also come from within the Church in ways one may not expect.
One kind of passive attack is an apathetic congregation. A priest commented to me that it is often a challenge to stay motivated year after year when you can see people arriving late, falling asleep, or having discussions among themselves.
While an apathetic congregation is one issue, dissident parishioners can be a completely different matter. It is not hard to find members of a congregation who want the Catholic Church to change its doctrine to suite their wants.
A former Navy Chaplin told me that after years of experience, he seldom takes to heart what his congregation tells him. His reasoning is simple. To a traditionalist, he said, a priest can never be traditional enough. And to a liberal, a priest can never be liberal enough. No matter what the priest says, someone will claim it is too much, while concurrently someone will claim it is too little.
‘Vile’ Letters, Solitude
These grievances are not limited to short discussions at the end of mass. My pastor commented to me about the “absolutely vile” letters dioceses receive from people who believe they are devout Catholics.
Solitude is another passive attack our priest must endure. It is common knowledge in today’s world, there is a shortage of priests in North America. The United States has become a mission land for the Church. Now, priests are sent to the United States from Africa and South America to tend the faithful who are also declining in numbers.
In the past, our priests lived in communities with other priests. The fellowship in these communities offered may forms of support. Unfortunately, a parish that formerly had 6 priests in the 1970’s may now be sharing priests with other parishes. Today, many priests live alone in seclusion with no one to even cover for them when they have the flu.
Do Not Add to the Attacks
All priests are human. They are imperfect and sinners just like you and me. They will make mistakes. Never look to your priest, pastor, and bishop to be perfect.
Our priests are constantly making decisions in an effort to maintain their parishes and save souls. It is highly unlikely that those decisions will match your thinking every time let alone the thinking of all the parishioners.
Abusive, predatory, and heretical priests should be held accountable. No excuse can be made for such actions. But a priest should not be put under assault for the new paint color in the naïve or the examples he used during this Sunday’s homily. So, what if all the Christmas decorations are not out, or no one fixed the handle on the west entrance door right away?
Pray for Our Priests
As attacks on the priesthood intensify, we have a vital role. Our priests are in dire need of our prayers as they fight for the salvation of souls. This is something we can all do, and we can do it right now. One can find many prayers for vocations including the prayer attached to another article on this subject by Sean Morrisroe.
Our priests are deep behind enemy lines, surrounded, and taking fire from all sides for their entire lives. We need to give them cover fire. We need to keep our priests in our prayers.
7 thoughts on “Pray for Our Priests, They Too Are Under Attack”
https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/pray-the-chaplet – Closing prayers ,
‘today all mankind calls from its abyss of misery ..’ – that word abyss also connected with the adulterous nature of lives any more , so very rampant in our times , from effects of contraception to that of pornography , thus many families feeling like they are drowing in narrow wells related to same evils , including that of sins against life .
The high techtimes OTOH can give one the false impression that one swipe and all of life should be heaven on earth ; it can be , if the fiinger is that of The Holy Spirit , yet , often it is that of Judas , that of greed , deception , contempt for the sacred , lies , cowardliness and despair .
Judas said to have hanged himself in the Vally of Gehenna , where the refuse was burned and the evil sacrifices to the false god Molech were carried out .
Our Lord , in The Passion , give us the grace to burn away all such in all our lives , which is what our priests help and encourage us to do too . Failures i ther lives to help us to look more deeply as to how any of us and our families have contributed to same through omission or commission and desire to make reparations .
One amazing promise of The Lord to St .Fautina ( as well as S.G.Luisa of Divine Will ) is how one soul living in His Will is greater than all the evils in the world – thus we can be grateful too for many such hidden lives , priests and religious esp . that help to avoid the chastisements that we desereve .
Expecting quick easy fixes to fall back into old ways and evils – the likely error that make many have the bitterness and contempt for The Church and all that is related to same .
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/10/27/pope-francis-advice-for-reigniting-your-spiritual-life/
The words of our Holy Father , on how to reignite spiritual life pertinent for all ;
may our Mother , who spiritually participated in The Passion as the Mother of Compassion bring hope and healingas New Lives into the depths of all our hearts , in the Fire of The Spirit , buring away all that need to be , to let the flames of holy love burn ever more brightly in all our hearts .
FIAT !
To be frank, the situation the church finds itself in is completely of its own doing.
The attacks from the outside? The church has done things that would make some of the most corrupt corporations blush. And they refuse to do anything meaningful to stop the same things from happening in the future. Respect for the church as an institution is completely gone – and it’s due solely to the church’s own actions.
The attacks from the inside? The bishops have divided Catholics. The bishops are as divided as the laity, and this is a big part of what is driving the internal issues with priests never being traditional or liberal enough. With the church truly going global over the past few decades, it’s easy to see that Catholicism in Germany is not the same as Catholicism in the US or in Latin America. We’ve been taught that the church is universal and has authority. When it becomes incredibly apparent that it is not universal – and might be completely different in the next diocese over – that causes anger and division.
The current structure of the church and the priesthood is clearly failing in the western world. The question is whether we want to make changes to revitalize things or if we want to cede the western world to focus completely on the developing world. Those are the options as I see them.
And yet the Church expects priests to be perfect as no mercy, no chance for repentance and conversion is possible for those who sin– to be clear, not those who commit egregious felonies. And further, they are first, de facto, presumed guilty and must prove they are not merely “not guilty” but innocent. But even this is not enough for some parishes and diocese. Priests are treated as expendable.
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Thank You all for your prayers, and please do remember always, No Priest, No Eucharist, No Priest, No Sacramental Confession, No Priest, No Anointing of the Sick, No Priest, No Apostolic Pardon. Pray the Lord continues to send good, holy, happy, courageous priests for the harvest!!!
Along with the good suggestions in the article , would suggest the prayer site below that is based on the Divine Mercy devotion –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8XEdSFnouU – The Priest , a Vincentain who is also an exorcist and has a degree in Cannon Law has been blessed with charismatic gifts in healing and related areas with daily online testimonials that are uplifting to hear and
to thank God with .
Many pastors and people of all faiths too attend the online service . He seems based on the Divine Will theme as well with the deep trust and hope to pray with His Will and Love that can come with same .
http://www.comingofthekingdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/30-The-Good-Shepherd.pdf
Making gifts of related books such as the 24 hours Passion meditations can also be a blessing – comes with promise of protection for the places where in same is done .
https://www.ltdw.org/newsletter-subscription—publication-orders.html
Our Lord is said to have redone every thought and deed of ours ( ? as it would have been before The Fall ) during His earthly hidden Life and thus have a perfect copy of ours in Him .
http://www.comingofthekingdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/44-Saints.pdf
The Sacraments help us to live more and more into same , from glory to glory . Seeing our priests , ourselves and others in that image , to thank The Lord for same and helping each other to live in same – our times are also blessed with the goodness of such truths revelaed to us .
Sts Simon and Jude – martyred together , likely were good friends as well – to bless us too in same in these rather ‘impossible ‘ tiimes .
Thank you for a wonderful article! I’ve been blessed with some wonderful priests in my life. I’ve met a few I thought would’ve been better in a seminary setting than a parish priest, they were way over my head!.
And then there were those few that really created the “fuzzies.” That warm and special glow in their presence.
And I pray for all of them. Theirs is a thankless “job.”