Major humiliation at church today

[QuisUtDeus]

If he says something about your pants again, be ready with a smart-ass remark so he knows you're not afraid of him....and I mean an in your face remark...that'll get his bullying

Well, she could tell him in a loud voice to stop staring at her ass, her face isn't wearing pants, and that's where he should be looking, after all.

But, I wouldn't go that route personally (and I'm also big on skirts so my advice would be not wear pants, but that's irrelevant).

The other option, which is tougher but I think more appropriate,  is just to ignore him and be yourself and do what you need to do.  Let him rant and rave and make a spectacle of himself instead of doing what most people would do.  If that's his idea of pastoral care, OK, great.  

[PeterII]

All you have to do is find a priest and parish that enjoys being distracted during the sermon, then all your problems will be solved. 

[Joshua]

This is terrible, but seems normal for traditional priests.

Really? Regale us with your personal experiences with the thousands of traditional Priests you've apparently all had the pleasure of meeting.

[CanadianCatholic]

I've gone go his superior about the pants remark.he was furious, and assured me he would deal with it. He has also come down hard on him about hitting the kids, my little sister said he's only flicked her in The head once so far his year  . As far as going to another church, it would kill my mom....and I just can't bare to add any stress on her. My husband understands that and is ok with it. He'll attend early mass at FSSP and I'll go to late with my daughters.
And dk, it is the same church. My family brought the society to our city, and it's hard to walk away from that. Our 2 other priests are amazing, especially our new head priest, so I'm going to talk to him.

[James02]

CC, a few comments:
1.  The priest is completely in the wrong and uncharitable.  He should have talked to you after Mass if he thought there was a problem, and that would allow him to get the facts.  He completely, totally blew it.

2.  Just because a priest is from the SSPX, does not guarantee he is a saint and perfect.  He is human.  He could give boring homilies.  He could be a bore in person.  He could be an ass.

3.  It appears you have a choice of either the SSPX or the FSSP.  Think about all the Trad Catholics out there that have neither ! 

4.  I would go to the FSSP Mass if I were in your situation.  Give it a try to talk to the priest, but I don't have high hopes for a resolution.  In the meantime he will scandalize your children who will grow to reject Traditionalism.

5.  In general, one of my pet peeves are Trad chapels that don't have a cry room.  I have heard stories of mothers having to take crying infants outside during Mass because of lack of a cry room.  If you are a trad priest, or a trad that may help in buying/building a Church, please put in a cry room and plenty of rest rooms, keeping in mind all the young Trad families being generous with life.

6.  A priest especially should be happy to have children about.  And a 4 yr. old especially will have to go pee at inopportune times.  Again, the priest was completely out of line.  And he was uncharitable as he did not have the facts.  If the noise was very distracting, then he could have paused while you were exiting, then resumed.  The comment was uncalled for.  Suppose your child had been busy puking all over the place?  Suppose she was in danger of pissing in the pew??  He was wrong.

7.  You were taking your kids to Mass.  How many "Catholic" kids still go to Mass??

[CollegeCatholic]

This is terrible, but seems normal for traditional priests. I have only been to mass at one traditional parish in the last year, because of a similar instance with an FSSP priest. He, along with a family of parishioners there spread all manner of calumny and slander about me; to the point of calling the police to stand guard because I was in town the day before. Paranoia and psychosis seems to be the norm, but ignorance, rudeness and ill-will seems to be even more widespread.

I guess this particular priest doesn't realize how ignorant this type of action makes him look and sound. The parishioners are just as culpable in the priests ignorance for joining in and staring (or any other form of gossip that may have occurred afterward).

My experience of traddy priests has been the complete opposite, and you should not paint with such broad strokes. 

[CanadianCatholic]

Thank you James, and thank you everyone!
My 4 yr old would definitely have been in danger of having an accident! And about his homilies...yes, they can go on for an hour at times. Keeping a kid still for a sung high mass is hard as it is. I'm one of the rare few parents in my church that doesn't knuckle my kids over the head when they make a peep...
It's nice to see I wasn't out of line in being upset.  There is a cry room, but it's tiny, and there so many ladies with tiny babies in there. If my husband and I go to the same mass, he takes the boys (2 yrs old and 11 mos old) downstairs in the basement, and I take the girls in the church

[CanadianCatholic]

All you have to do is find a priest and parish that enjoys being distracted during the sermon, then all your problems will be solved. 

[James02]

This is terrible, but seems normal for traditional priests. 

One bad priest, and you call this normal for trad priests?  You are out of line.  I have been to Masses of probably over 20 Trad priests, maybe more than that, and never seen something like this.  I also hear about N.O. priests raping little boys.  So pick your poison.

BUT, I am not surprised at CCs story.  Again, just because he is SSPX doesn't guarantee he is the perfect priest.

[Baskerville]

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