The Catholic Church’s position is that once a priest is ordained he is a priest for life. Very rarely will a priest be de-frocked, and in fact I can’t remember a recent instance.
Parish priest who misbehave and flout the bishop can be sent to all sorts of remote places where they cannot agitate.
This congregation agitated to keep Pfleiger there, and they were given their way. Now we can see the harm letting someone stay at one parish for 30 years can cause.
Really? I didn’t realize the Catholic Church took this position with priests. Well, maybe there’s a nice parish in Uzbekistan, or Siberia, or somewhere near the Arctic Circle...
“Parish priest who misbehave and flout the bishop can be sent to all sorts of remote places where they cannot agitate.”
Good send him to the Arctic Circle.
But how can they inflict this scumbag on another parish? No one should have this clown imposed upon them as a spiritual leader and guide in their community. If they cannot de-frock him for some reason then exile him to live in the basement of the most remote monastery in existence while he contemplates his life and spiritual disorder.
“The Catholic Church’s position is that once a priest is ordained he is a priest for life. Very rarely will a priest be de-frocked, and in fact I can’t remember a recent instance.”
I remembered that this particular one was defrocked and later murdered in prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Geoghan
There’s a bit of clarification needed to the “priest for life” statement. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is permanent, a priest is ontologically different than a layperson... forever. Yes, it would be unusual to “defrock” him, however, there have been extreme cases (such as Michael Fox) where a priest is excommunicated. He could also be laicized without being excommunicated (reduced to the lay state, but could continue as a regular practicing Catholic). He could also be allowed to remain a priest, but banned from performing the sacraments (he could not say mass, baptize, etc).