was this priest rude--not starting a religious debate just thoughts

[QueenIsabella]

Only question I have is, what is the structure of the Church? My limited experience with the Catholic church is that the Priest is the big boss, and the membership, and those who volunteer to run various church programs report to the Priest and abide by .his decisions. In that frame work, the Priest's response might be a little terse but within his job description.
Other churches, the Pastor works for the congregation under control of a group of volunteers (known as the Session in some churches). The Session tells the Pastor how things will be run. They have power to hire and fire the Pastor. In that frameworks, if I am reading the OP's post, the Priest is declining to do what his church's religious education leader needs him to do. That would be out of line

Yeah, this isn't how it works in the Catholic church. The priest is in charge. He reports to the bishop.

In this case, I'm mostly concerned because the religion education leader, per the OP, doesn't know what "rites" are. These are also called sacraments, and are a BIG DEAL to Catholics. Baptism is done in infancy usually, but First Confession/First Communion have specific preparation. Confirmation is the big one--typically done ~ age 13. This is when young people commit to the church. here is definitely a preparation period--I specifically remember that the bishop came to visit our confirmation class, and our teachers made sure we were ready, should he quiz us. The religious education leader would be the one spearheading these teachings. But, in this case, he can't tell "rights" from "rites". That's not a good look. Even if it was auto-correct (happens!), he should have recognized the error and face-palmed--or at least, laughed along with the priest at the mistake.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Yeah, this isn't how it works in the Catholic church. The priest is in charge. He reports to the bishop.

In this case, I'm mostly concerned because the religion education leader, per the OP, doesn't know what "rites" are. These are also called sacraments, and are a BIG DEAL to Catholics. Baptism is done in infancy usually, but First Confession/First Communion have specific preparation. Confirmation is the big one--typically done ~ age 13. This is when young people commit to the church. here is definitely a preparation period--I specifically remember that the bishop came to visit our confirmation class, and our teachers made sure we were ready, should he quiz us. The religious education leader would be the one spearheading these teachings. But, in this case, he can't tell "rights" from "rites". That's not a good look. Even if it was auto-correct (happens!), he should have recognized the error and face-palmed--or at least, laughed along with the priest at the mistake.

Agreed. It's concerning that the RE teacher is calling the sacraments "rights".

 

[Dznypal]

OP here I was brought up catholic and the only “rite” we ever heard of was last rites the rest are called sacraments. Might be just different areas call things by other names.
To further clarify it’s my DH church and not mine.
The part where the priest said he didn’t know what last rights were. You mean he couldn’t figure that out when it was a spelling error.
Also he has been going to another church a few times and really likes it so he is looking to change.
Some of these posts were rather rude and offensive.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

At church my DH is the religious education leader--hes in charge of putting the programs together and making sure all the paper work for each student is in place among other things.
The church is changing alot of things mostly becoming a Hispanic church which be for the overflow from the church a few blocks away thats just packed. Last year they got 2 priests from the other church to run this one as well.
So the other day DH was talking to the director of religious ed. to put together a retreat day. He also mentioned to DH to make sure that the students know about the rites-now I cant remember what rites the director was talking about. The only one I know if is last rites and its certainly not that.
So DH went to ask the priest about this and first the priest I dont know what your talking about--then went to say its rites and not rights-so was he playing mind games and said he didnt know what theses rights were when it was spelled wrong but then made a big deal to correct the spelling.

he also ended the email with
ja ja ja
which DH had absolutely no clue what he was talking about
I said jokingly that maybe it means ha ha ha
which he looked it up and it is spanish for ha ha ha
DH was taken back by all this--the priest was very rude in his response and never did answer the original question.
This is how its been going there--its all to drive out people so they can have room to change to hispanics
The priests all right there for the hispanics and the others get brushed to the side
I always thought priests were supposed to be all holy and not be rude to certain ones
not starting a religious debate but really thought the priest should have just answered the question and then told DH the correct spelling
and adding spanish words when he knows DH doenst know spanish is out of line

I imagine the rudeness stems from the underlying bigotry that many of us perceived (whether intentional or unintentional) in your post. Glad that you found another church.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The RE staff reports to the priest and the parish priest reports to the bishop.

True. I will add that if you go over the priests head it had better be something important and wrong. Otherwise he's going to ask, why are you going against the priest my child. That's the bishop's way of saying you stepped in it.