Right now I'm on the Archdiocese's End-of-Summer Retreat for Seminarians at a beautiful lake house of the Sisters of Mercy in Crestwood, KY. It started Sunday and goes till Wednesday afternoon when we'll take pictures and have a luncheon with the Serra Club.
Yesterday and today, two priests came to talk to us about their ministry and experiences. I missed one yesterday because I had to go buy a suit for the picture tomorrow and I missed both today because I had to work. The one I was able to be at yesterday was from the pastor at Epiphany, regarded by people from all over the spectrum as being probably second only to St. William in it's progressivness.
I squirmed in my chair a little bit but I didn’t say anything, I didn't feel like it was the right time or place. Long story short: I was fairly scandalized. He went into great detail about how he invites divorced, gays, non-Catholics, and non-Christians up to communion and when his associate pastor says Mass he sits in the congregation making sure everyone goes. He also talked about how he doesn’t like weekly confession times, instead they have monthly communal confession where families at a time will come up, all confess their sins together, he lays hands on each of them and gives them all absolution at once. And it’s not just venial sins they confess, he’s heard abortion and other grave sins in this manner as well. He also said that he has no authority there whatsoever, instead they have over 150 committees that manage every aspect of the parish. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
It depressed me somewhat and I indulged my introversion for the rest of the day...
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