Our Highest Priority: We Are All Created to Be More Like Jesus, He Gave Us an Example, Even Priests Need to Aspire to This!

 

We attended a Catholic Church for 2+ years when we moved in 2021 to Indian River, we would see our priest at church and at the local gym, he is about 10-13 younger than us, he would never look at us or talk to us. One day I said "hello father "to him at the gym and he completely ignored me.  Never welcoming, kind, or loving, just dismissive, judging, avoiding, and ignoring us. We never pushed anything with him. After about 2+ years, we just switched to another church where we found the priest to be more loving, kind, and welcoming, even inviting us to his events/home. We have been going there now and at peace with our new church for 5+ months now. Recently, our old priest after 5+ months of not seeing us I guess at his church, asked us at the gym if we still go to his church, we said no we switched to another church, we were honest to him. He seemed defensive and acted like we were rude for saying we switched or sharing our feelings about it.  He was almost livid and not nice, mocking us. There was no charity from him, never kind or loving in the 2+ years knowing him. I think he has some insecurity or demon he is wrestling with, nonetheless we just stopped going there, we wanted a church where we felt the priest was more like Jesus. We do love him and forgive him, but we wanted to move on to something better and more positive for our lives. I hope we do not have to quit our gym now as we do not want any drama or confrontations from him again. He never really spoke to us at church or the gym for the 2 + years until he asked us the other day if we were still at his church. We do pray for him and I asked him to pray for us too. We didn't want to make a big deal of it, just move on and be peaceful, we have found more peace and a priest who is more like Jesus at our new church we go to. The priest at a church makes a real difference for sure. They can either help you get to Heaven or chase you away from the church. It is sad when you get one so indifferent and unlike Jesus. Priests need our prayers it is a very isolating profession. I think priests need to practice what they preach, if they do not want to, they should just be professors. Being a priest is serious business and you need to love like Jesus does to ALL peoples. Not chase people away from a church or their faith.