It is ironic that this piece came out in the Sun Times last week because in talking to my Church-going parents, they (and the rest of the congregation) also had an unfortunate "priest experience" last Saturday evening at mass. The priest allegedly stood up at the beginning of mass and told everyone how glad he was that the church was so full of attendees (it was a festival weekend in town, so there were many guests from out of town). However, after the recitation of the Prayer of the Faithful, the priest stopped the service abruptly and loudly and harshly scolded the entire congregation for not saying the prayer with more "feeling". He told them that if he said the prayer in the monotone way they did, that he'd have had to retire a long time ago. I guess a gasp went through the congregation as heads turned to look at each other in utter dismay. My mother was so fired up that she, being on the Parish Council, took the issue to a meeting to complain. I was also told that a male parishioner approached the offending priest immediately after mass and the priest loudly denied that he said anything wrong.
Nothing makes a guest or native parishioner feel more unwelcome and unfocused on prayer than getting their asses reamed for not saying a prayer "correctly".
The story below, however, is far worse than just a pissy priest. The priest took what should have been a privately held discussion and turned it into a public effigy. What a joke. I don't blame the parishioner a bit for his reaction. Some frustrated priests, rather than being able to make love to a woman (or man), make love to corrupt power. There is just too much they are denied on such a human level and that very-natural-human-need void gets filled one way or another, whether it is through the Nazi-like management of a church, or booze, or golf, or verbal abuse, etc. Being celibate is supposed to bring one closer to God, if I am not mistaken, but instead it seems to cause much more long-lasting frustration and destruction (molestation, anger, abuse) than visible and lasting results of a sexless life. I don't hear priests standing up and declaring how glad they are that they do not have a sexual partner, because, man, it makes life and all layers of life all the more better. A priest who has never married has no right on God's green earth to counsel married couples. There are too many nuances about married life that the priest cannot even begin to understand or speak about, but I digress....
Critical mass - Priest's alleged response to criticism of his homily leaves parishioner so angry he's suing the church and diocese
Chicago Sun Times, October 3, 2007
Angel Llavona considered his priest open to honest criticism. And so after one Sunday mass last year, Llavona telephoned the Crystal Lake priest and left a message that The Rev. Luis Alfredo Rios, a priest at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, then did something equally brazen, Llavona claims. He played the private phone message during Sunday mass and asked his flock, "What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?" Now Llavona, who was sitting in church when his message was played, is suing Rios and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford. Llavona claims in the lawsuit filed this week in McHenry County that he was defamed and suffered "immediate emotional distress, embarrassment and humiliation." Llavona says the humiliation forced him to change parishes. He is seeking a minimum of $50,000 in damages. Llavona, a teacher at Maine West High School in Des Plaines, served as a volunteer with the parish's religious education program from September of 2005 to April of 2006. "Disharmony or disagreement between a priest and his parishioners is always unfortunate," said diocese spokeswoman Penny Wiegert, reading from a statement Tuesday. "We hope that a peaceful solution at St. Thomas the Apostle can be established outside the court." Rios could not be reached for comment and Llavona, raking leaves outside his Algonquin home, didn't want to discuss the case. In his lawsuit, Llavona claims he left a phone message on Rios' private parish line one day after the September 24, 2006, mass. At the time, Rios was new to the Crystal Lake Church. The message: "Father Rios, this is Angel Llavona. I attended mass on Sunday and I have seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records."then says in his lawsuit that he tried to arrange a meeting with Rios, but the priest refused. Then, Llavona claims, Rios played the phone message on Oct. 1, 2006, during two Sunday mass services. According to Llavona, Rios told the congregation, "This is the person in charge of religious education here last year. That's why it is no surprise to me [that] we had the kind of religious education we had. That's why we didn't get altar boys. What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?"One parishioner interviewed this week said she was in church when Rios played Llavona's phone message. She said she had a hard time hearing the message but had only praise for Rios and his abilities as a priest. "Oh, I love it," Guadalupe Zambrano, 40, said of Rios' preaching. "He always talk strong, like he wants to tell everybody how to love God."Zambrano said Rios is the kind of priest who encourages parents to take part in their children's religious education and says it's clear that Rios prepares diligently for his sermons. "Everything he says in the homily . . . you get it right away," Zambrano said.
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