There was once a priest very much like the one Don Altabello describes, who later turned out to be exposed as a homosexual, who was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in the bad neighborhood around the church where he said Mass and taught "theology" at the parish school. He kept a seperate house far away from the rectory in another town and sometimes came to Mass to "help out" in full biretta, baroque chasuble, amice, stole and maniple.
He was more of a caricature of a Miramax production villain than the good priest, often invoking unreasonable arguments against the students in the school, his students, whom he often referred to as "losers". Well, we get a lot of these types in seminary:
Don Altabello
April 23, 2008 2:21 PM
[chop]
Rod--I'll give a "common sense" anecdote of what I'm talking about (in addition to yours). A certain priest (recently ordained) frequents some of the same events I do. He is boorish, self-obsessed, and (though this word is much mis-used) rigid. He injects himself into conversations constantly, dominating the conversation to talk about theology. The man also seems to have control issues--likes to lord his authority and knowledge over others. Once in a discussion group that he visited, the leader asked him about his vocation story (as a courtesy), and he took about 25 minutes. There's other stuff I have personal knowledge of (nothing criminal or deeply immoral, just unseemly), but I won't disclose it here.
Every time he comes near a group I'm in, I'll just walk away. Now--many people will give this type of person deference because he is a priest. My contention is this--why in the world wasn't someone scratching their head or pulling him aside during seminary? I have no reason to believe he is abusive--but ordaining these types of people just influxes the priesthood with men who have all manner of character problems.
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