St. Mary's is my childhood church. Baptized, First Communion, Confirmation, the whole nine yards. Father McCarthy was a tough but fair pastor. He would face any problem head on! Unfortunately, as people get older there comes a time for retirement. Father McCarthy retired and in 2013 a new pastor entered the lives of many parishioners.

One day a short time ago I asked the new pastor if I could see him for reconciliation. When I arrived for our scheduled appointment he was nowhere to be found. The ladies in the Parish Office called him and 30 minutes later he finally arrived. I sat down with him and before I could even get my first sentence out of my mouth he told me that he didn't believe that I went to church on a weekly basis. Then he started making up lies and said that is what I should confess about. I personally was mortified! I couldn't believe what was coming out of this "priest" who serves Our Lord!!! What kind of priest would do this. Obviously, this one does.

Days later I felt the need to get my displeasure off my chest and decided to write a letter to him so I could talk to him about this situation. He never responded to my first letter so I wrote a second letter. Finally, about two months after my first letter he responded and we set up another meeting at the Parish office. The day of the meeting arrives and he is nowhere to be found again. After numerous emails and phone calls I finally hear from him only to discover that he left an angry and nasty message on my voicemail. Other parishioners that knew of my situation went up and asked why he wouldn't talk to me. The Pastors response was "that there are crazy people out there and he didn't feel safe!!! Really Father??? You are a priest and you use that as an excuse for just not having a backbone. You are totally in the wrong line of work!

What kind of priest would tell you what to confess and then make excuse after excuse not to meet you. I haven't attended mass at St. Mary's since that incident and I don't intend to go to another mass there until this priest is gone! I really wish he never became pastor here!