I received an appeal from Opus Bono Sacerdotii, an organization which gives help to priests who are in difficulties.
They wrote saying:
We have a dozen priests we cannot help at this time who need your prayers.
They are in dire need of about $150 per month to supplement their income for food and utilities.
If it’s not too much to ask, would you please, please consider a small donation as part of your Lenten alms giving to help us meet the needs of these suffering priests? We simply do not have the additional funds at this time.
The need is urgent!
Currently we care for over a thousand Catholic priests in the United States.
Please click here now: http://www.opusbono.org/donate.html
or mail your donation to P.O. Box 663, Oxford, MI 4837Thank you!
May Our Lady of Priests be your health and your protection.
Pete
Consider what many priests, who have little or no family, go through when they are in a jam. Their dioceses can turn on them or just dump them. Priests are easy targets. Some priests get into trouble and – especially when innocent and perhaps falsely accused – don’t know what to do because they are afraid of the public scandal or consequences. Some priests who have personal problems just don’t know where to turn or don’t have the resources to get help.
Priests are imperfect sinners, like you are, everyone is. But priests confect the Eucharist and give you Christ’s Body and Blood. They forgive your sins and anoint you when you are dying.
Please, if you have a heart for priests, consider making a donation to them.
Loading ...
I think you mean “…priests who are experiencing difficulties….” rather than “…priests who are difficulties….” [If the shoe fits…. but you are right.]
This is a fabulous organization. As our priests are being attacked and suffering so much lately, I think this is very good place to donate our money. God bless them and their organization.
Do you need a donation Father Z? [Me? Always!]
They care for over a thousand priests in the US? Do priests in the US really need that much help? I thought they got sufficent funds to live on? They certainly seem so in the Arlington Diocese.
Just push the button. Most priests I know make less than starting salaries for secretaries in my area.
If the Arlington diocese is so well off, consider yourself lucky. Many are not so well blessed as to be populated by government bureaucrats, beltway bandit executives, and other well-heeled examples of the American dream.
Some are well-off and have wealthy benefactors or families. Most are not. Think of what they do, without counting the cost, oft times with a smile and a ‘God bless you’.
Consider it a Lenten sacrifice, as the good Fr. Z said.
The payment page demands that the address includes a US state or Canadian province even for non US/Canadian addresses. I had to give up, I was going in circles.
GregH, perhaps you should read:
This.
Sorry I don’t know how to make that a nice little, blue phrase, but go there and buy that book or read the following report:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/1029/the_truth_about_falsely_accused_priests.aspx
Priests can be dropped from a diocese payroll in a heartbeat with one mere accusation. It’s crazy. [And it doesn’t even matter if the accusation is well grounded.]
Yes. Priests can be placed on administrative leave with little credible evidence. And some are asked to resign without anything being proven. I hope it works out for Fr. Guarnizo. I remember him as a seminarian and I attended some of his fundraising efforts in metro D.C when I lived there. He has my support. I’d like to believe that because he is incardinated to the Archdiocese of Moscow not Washington, D.C. that it will work in his favor. Who knows, he may end up being a beneficiary of Opus Bono! Let’s hope and pray he doesn’t; he’s too good of a priest.
It is Lent. I believe we must “Give to all who ask”
Not trying to be snarky, just wanting to understand the situation, is there anything to prevent a priest on leave and off the payroll from getting an outside job? Applying for unemployment or food stamps? Accepting charitable gifts from food banks, etc.? Does compensation for priests in positions not take into account the cost of living in the area? Are priests not provided with housing when they are attached to a parish or order? Is health insurance not universally provided? Does a priest have no income security at all, at any point in his life? [No. And even though a priest might have been stuck in the penalty box by a diocese, he would still need permission to work a job. Nice, huh? Priests are in many ways little more than indentured servants and some bishops… some, mind you, not all… channel their inner Dickens when it comes to priests. But a guy has to put groceries on the table and that usually means getting a job, whether he has permission or not.]
LisaP., they say that religious priests make a vow of poverty, but secular (diocesan) priests actually live it. They depend on gratuities (e.g., stipends for Masses, funerals, weddings, etc.) to supplement their microscopic salaries. Unless they have some independent means, they are essentially beggars. One can envision dangers to a priestly vocation that may come from working a job in the secular world; certainly a secular job could well conflict with a priest’s duties. [Many Eastern priests have jobs.]
But, that aside, it would probably be difficult for a priest trying to get a secular job to find someone to hire him in the first place. Even menial work is hard to come by when you’re grossly overqualified for most jobs. If you’re a displaced professional, people don’t want to hire you because they know you’re trying to get back into your regular line; or, they think you’re out of work because you’ve done something wrong. In a world that holds priests in contempt, imagine the stone walls a priest will run into who has been stripped of his faculties.
It is probably well for the soul of a secular priest if he does not have huge quantities of money: priests must trust in God alone and not material wealth. But in charity, we need to contribute to the support of priests, especially those who are in difficulties.
Priests are also provided with free housing and health insurance. And some get an allowance for their automobile use. [Most. Not all.]
I stand corrected. I also acknowledge that their salaries are VERY low. Varies by diocese. Perhaps $25,000 on average. Just conjecture.
May I remind you that this isn’t about picking apart how priests live, a never-ending source of fascinating speculation for many, I’m afraid. This is about donating to a an organization that helps priests who are in trouble of some kind.
Okay?
Ok i donated! Put my money where my mouth was!
Please give what you can. You will be blessed…
” Opus Bono Sacerdotii (OBS) is the only lay organization of its kind that assists Catholic priests with difficulties that require the aid we offer.
We turn no priests away who need our help when we can help them.
OBS has been a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in existence since April of 2002.
Our mission is to love Jesus Christ the High Priest. We fulfill our mission by manifesting our love for Christ in serving each priest individually. We focus on each priest’s unique needs and loving him unconditionally.
OBS is funded by individual donations. We charge no fees for our assistance to priests.
All of the aid that we provide priests evolves as each situation dictates the type of assistance needed given the resources available.”
Now I’m really disappointed wtih the bishops….. how can we fully encourage men to enter the priesthood if their ability to eat is in jeopardy? How can they justify abandoning these men?
Whew! Are there no workhouses, eh? Sheesh. In all seriousness, I have met a few priests who would have benefitted from this venerable service. We were teaching graduate school at Mercy College here in New York, and we had a priest in our class. He was part of the New York Archdiocese, and yet he was working as an Assistant Principal at an Episcopalian boarding school for mentally ill students. As it turned out, he was exiled there for being too Traditional and an affection for TLM. The was before SP, and he was eager to talk about the faith, but not too loudly.
I have known another priest who was actually run out of his parish for being too Traditional. I don’t want to say much more, because I don’t want to cause embarrassment, and I have a feeling that a number of friends may be lurking here. But trust me, being a priest in this day and age contains many of the same pitfalls as teaching. If you get a boss who doesn’t like you, or a student/parishoner who doesn’t like you, or you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time, or just have a bad day and say the wrong thing, you can get torpedoed. And priests don’t have a Union. (Not that the Teachers’ Union has any teeth left- see the pension decision in NY yesterday….)
Good for you, GregH!
Our priests all (including the Holy Father and our bishops) sure need all of the support, encouragement, and prayers we can give them. (Now more than ever!) It’s the least we can do when you look at what they do for us. I stumbled onto one of those prayers that includes praying for the priest who baptised you, etc. I was shocked. I don’t think I’ve EVER prayed for the priest who baptized me, witness my marriage, heard my first confession, brought Christ to me for the first time in Holy Communion etc. I OWE them so much. I sure take a lot for granted when these men have offered their lives in service to Holy Mother Church.
I think it was some comment on Fr. Z’s blog that challenged people to write to their parish priests and thank them. Maybe today is the day I should do that.
God bless our many priests!
*baptized…I’m not British! :)
Thought I was just trying to understand better, but I imagine some voyeruism or worse was at play with my question.
My preconceptions led me to believe the Church provided for the basics of living, eating, transportation and health care for all her priests, and that this foundation is essentially set up to provide funding for priests who have been removed from office either for or without good cause. I wanted to see if my preconceptions were in error and that was only a small part of it. When people speak in “code” (even if it’s for very good reasons) it’s hard for outsiders to understand. Sorry if I came off as going through anyone’s dresser drawers.
Lisa, I understand. I find it shocking too. I presumed that when priests were being investigated or whatever that they were on paid leave or something. Also, I had NO idea that they weren’t always provided legal cousel by the diocese. That’s why reading these David Pierre books is SO important.
I love Opus Bono Sacerdotii. They offer us a great opportunity to help priests including those falsely accused and suffering in union with our falsely accused, mocked, scorned and crucified Lord, and some who did something actually bad, quite regardless they are in need of mercy. Always, reverence is owed to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. I will give them some more when I have money again.
Pingback: THURSDAY MID-DAY EXTRA | ThePulp.it