A Troubled Priest

My mother and brother, also converts to Catholicism, attend a church that had an unpopular pastor. The pastor was overweight, dyslexic, a poor homilist, and a very poor manager of money. He was also a gracious, generous-spirited man with the gift of compassion. He is, I am told, gay.

What distressed me about this situation is the way the entire church ganged up on the man. It seems to me that the mismanagement of money was a genuine issue but one that could have been solved by insisting that he appoint a parish finance council.

The other issues should have been met with compassion. A man with dyslexia who is trying to read the Gospels and deliver homilies in front of large crowds should be treated with kindness. Even though most people in the parish probably did not know about the dyslexia, it was obvious from watching him that he struggled to read and had some kind of disability.

As for his homilies, he was actually decent enough when he spoke from his heart. If the parish and shown him love and support, he might have had the courage to speak from his heart more but it is hard to make yourself vulnerable in the face of hostility.

To make matters worse, that hostility often came from the people who should have shown the most support: the church steward, the people who attended daily mass, the deacon. All those people who compose the backbone of the church and who should have shown the most compassion were often those who treated him the worst.

I have the impression that part of the hostility he encountered was due to his (alleged) gayness. The steward is also gay and there seemed to be some kind ill-feeling between them, the origin of which I didn't really understand. They were NOT lovers so it is not a matter of sexual jealousy. In any case, the steward didn't like him and because he was at the church every single day and knew virtually everybody, he was able to stir up ill-feeling against the priest very effectively.

Suffice it to say that the church went through much trauma, the pastor has been sent back to assist at his original parish, and a new pastor has been appointed. The new pastor has not been able to say mass at the church yet because he is actually serving as pastor for two parishes until a replacement can be found for his old parish. He sent a message to be read in church today saying that he is working hard to get the parish finances in order and that he was doing "forensic accounting." In other words, even though he hasn't said a single mass yet, he let it be known during mass that the other pastor had messed up royally. My heart ached for the original pastor.


Fortunately, many other people in the congregation thought this priest got a raw deal and that he was treated with a singular lack of Christian love and compassion. Some of these parishioners plan to visit him at his new church where he serves as priest but not as pastor.

If any priest or future priest is reading this, learn the following lessons from this saga:

appoint a parish finance council


Unless the financial situation of the church is absolutely desperate, be sure to give the church steward, the church secretary, and other employees annual raises. One of the things that bothered the steward--and this was legitimate--was that the pastor spent huge sums of money refurbishing the rectory while the steward hadn't had a raise in three years.


The pastor often downloaded his weekday homilies from the internet. If you do this, don't be seen doing this. Or, one pastor I know simply omits the weekday homily. His Sunday homilies are excellent and maybe his parishioners are okay with skipping weeday homilies because the mass ends sooner and this is important for people who need to get to work on time.

Remember that your parish is judging you by the quality of your homilies. If you need help in this area, join a Toastmaster's Club or take a public speaking course. Apparently, seminaries don't teach this skill well enough. Go to priests who give excellent homilies and ask them for their advice on how to do it.


Money management and homilies will make or break your priesthood or pastorate. Keep that in mind. After reading this story, do you still really want to be a priest?