Posted on 10/09/2021 5:50:49 PM PDT by marshmallow
A centenarian priest in Texas has been recalled to his religious community in Spain, to the dismay of his longtime parishioners.
“It kind of hurts our feelings,” said parishioner Jacqueline Hernandez, in an interview with 12NewsNow of Southeast Texas. “It really does because he is a figure in so many people's lives that he is family to us. He spends more time with us than he has with his own family."
Father Luis Urriza has served in the United States since 1949, with the majority of his time spent in the Diocese of Beaumont. But he is a member of the Augustinian order, with his province based in Spain. He was essentially on loan to the Diocese of Beaumont.
His superior has asked Fr. Urriza to return to Spain for retirement, because of his advanced age. Fr. Urriza celebrated his 100th birthday Aug. 19.
“I'm sorry I have to leave. Really, I don't like it, but I have to accept it,” Fr. Urriza said, in comments to 12NewsNow.
Fr. Urriza was born in Navarre in 1921. He made his solemn vows in the Augustian Order in 1941, and was ordained a priest in 1944. He was a teacher for three years in northern Spain, before serving two years as a chaplain for the Spanish Army.
His superior sent him to the United States in 1949. He arrived in the Diocese of Beaumont shortly after, to serve a growing Hispanic Catholic population there. He reportedly built his current parish in Beaumont, Christ the King, from the ground up.
He spent a little more than a decade in other parts of Texas, including two years in the “Movement for a Better World,” before returning to Christ the King in 1977, as pastor. He had been pastor at Christ the King ever since.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
When you join a religious order, you take a vow of obedience, including retiring in the order’s Home when you’re 100. I wish him more years of doing good.
Seems pretty mean to do this to a 100-year-old, if you ask me.
What is the problem with him retiring here? Obscure Vatican rule? Too conservative?
A plane seat is cheaper than shipping a casket.
The virtue of holy and lawful obedience in the religious life has been lost in our society even among Christians, Thats because, in part, of our strong emphasis as Americans on personal liberties (it is preserved somewhat in our military tradition). When one enters a religious order, he knows exactly what he is getting into before he or she takes their final vows.
That does not change the fact that this priest is working under mean spirited Idiots. I think the priest has earned the right to choose.
He did choose: when he took his monastic vows.
We don’t always get what we want in life. He is fortunate to have reached the age of 100; his parishioners were fortunate to have him with them as long as he was.
Suppose he died? Would they protest God?
People really should refrain from criticizing things—like the requirements of religious vows— that they know nothing about. It’s ignorant.
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