Prayer Request: Cancelled Priests

Fr Zed asks for prayers for those Priests who are being 'cancelled' by being removed from their Parishes without reassignment.

From Fr Z's Blog

I lately have had notes from lay people and from priests about priests who are being cancelled… by their bishops.

I grant that in every case there can be circumstances, details that are not public.

That said, this seems to be happening more frequently now.

Word about these situations gets around and it is incredibly demoralizing.   I recently had a chat with a young man who has a strong sense of his priestly call.  But he has seen what is happening to priests.  He made a determination that he would be crazy to seek ordination for his diocese and is, instead, going to join one of the traditional religious groups.   I said, “Amen.”

As one of the brethren, I ask that you say often, daily at least, the prayer for priests which I link on the sidebar of this blog.  Perhaps you could bookmark it or print it out and keep it with you.  Maybe keep a copy in your car so that you could say it at a long light, or when waiting to pick someone up.   Perhaps put a copy in your hand missal.

Priests are among the most vulnerable members of the church, as a matter of fact.   Bishops seem to be applying “tall poppy syndrome” rather than trying to work something out with them.

Daily Prayer for Priests

O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the Enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests, [for thy cancelled priests] for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.

But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.

IMPRIMATUR
✠Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, 6 September 2018