Sometimes I’m frustrated at the Catholic Church. Don’t get me wrong, I love my faith, but sometimes I get frustrated. For many years at my home parish, our parish was literally decimated by a bad priest. He was an incredibly rude man, a stubborn man who was felt he was above people particularly women, due to his native culture. This drove people out of the parish in a lot of ways. Then a few years ago, we got another priest – a good and holy man who was kind and more welcoming than the other one.
For years – I was distrustful of priests because of this. I felt they were okay, but some of them shouldn’t have become priests – I felt or sometimes that they weren’t good men. They stood up in church and preached the Gopsel, but they didn’t act like a Christian and this bothered me. It bothered me even more after watching a movie called Spotlight, which was centered around the Catholic Church and the sex abuse scandal in Boston, MA and other places around the world. Now, I’ve not known any priests to be persecuted for abuse, but I do know one that was accused, but was later acquitted. It seemed hard to be able to trust these men of God.
And then I moved after college and the Church that I now attend has a priest, who is a young and good and holy man. And it astonishes me of his story of becoming a priest – it is one that I believe he really does have the call of God to love and serve others with a servant’s heart. I find myself going to him for advice and he really is such a blessing to our parish. Good, holy men like this are needed in parishes if the Catholic Church is to survive. You need someone who can relate to the people that they are serving, that want to serve them and have a relationship with them in return.
I guess all I’m really saying is that I’m thankful for good and holy priests, who are good men and are a light in their parish or community.
