Trepidations

Our parish is getting a new pastor at the end of this month. We have been blessed with many wonderful, faithful, orthodox priests for over 20 years but now we are worried about the new priest.

He is a member of Voice of the Faithful. From what else I can discern he is a typical "progressive" Jesuit.

Already there has been a meeting with a rep from the Chancery asking us to "liturgically" welcome the new pastor. By that she meant that on his first Sunday here, he is to knock on the doors and we are to throw the doors wide open to let him in. *YAWN*. Our parish is called The Little Vatican in our Archdiocese, and when she made that suggestion she hit a brick wall. Everyone in the meeting balked. "Liturgy is liturgy", one parishioner politely reminded her. "We will welcome Father by having a dinner or something after Mass, but we won't change the liturgy to some kind of theatrics." That said, the Chancery Rep scurried back to Seattle.

We are all praying for our new priest. But we are also resolute. If he tries to remove the kneelers, or the statues, or the holy water, he is going to be in for a fight. If he preaches pro ordination for women (as he has done in the past to other parishes) he will meet up with polite but firm rebukes in letters to him and to the Archbishop. If he takes away Eucharistic Adoration every Friday we will still come there to pray. If he moves the Tabernacle to some closet or room we will move it back. If he changes the liturgy to some weird drama with dancers and clowns, well, we'll probably start going elsewhere for Mass and stop giving at the Offertory.

It may sound mean, but I'm so tired of these leftover 60's radicals hijacking the Church. He is due to retire in a few years and I hope his stay here won't be long. Unless he has had a metanoia and serves faithfully.