OK. This is my new favorite story ever. I know I’ve said this before but this time I really mean it.
You ever hear a sermon you didn’t like? Did you ever say anything? Well one man did and things got ugly in a hurry, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
After one Sunday mass last year, CCD teacher Angel Llavona telephoned his priest and left a message that went something like this: “Father Rios, this is Angel Llavona. I attended mass on Sunday and I have seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records.”
The Rev. Luis Alfredo Rios, the priest at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, then did something equally not so nice, Llavona claims. Rios played the private phone message during Sunday mass and told the congregation, “This is the person in charge of religious education here last year. That’s why it is no surprise to me [that] we had the kind of religious education we had. That’s why we didn’t get altar boys. What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?”
Now Llavona, who was sitting in church when his message was played, is suing Rios and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford for $50,000 big ones. Llavona claims in the lawsuit filed this week in McHenry County that he was defamed and suffered “immediate emotional distress, embarrassment and humiliation.”
Oh get over yourself! I admit it’s pretty bad but grow up. I would be embarrassed and humiliated to admit to emotional distress because of that. My pastor tells us all the time we’re all going to Hell. He doesn’t name me personally but I’m pretty sure he means me.
Llavona says the humiliation forced him to change parishes. (I guess that means the priest didn’t send him to Hell after all.)
“Disharmony or disagreement between a priest and his parishioners is always unfortunate,” said diocese spokeswoman Penny Wiegert, reading from a statement Tuesday. “We hope that a peaceful solution at St. Thomas the Apostle can be established outside the court.”
But the priest does have his supporters. “Oh, I love it,” Guadalupe Zambrano, 40, said of Rios’ preaching. “He always talk strong, like he wants to tell everybody how to love God.”
Zambrano said Rios is the kind of priest who encourages parents to take part in their children’s religious education and says it’s clear that Rios prepares diligently for his sermons. “Everything he says in the homily . . . you get it right away,” Zambrano said.
To be honest, it doesn’t seem the priest is heavy on subtlety.
I know this is the kind of story that is probably be a big deal for the people involved but just seems so silly to everyone else. I’ll try to be more serious on my next story.
October 5, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Had the statement been public, a response in kind would have been appropriate. But it was private, or at least out of public view, and should have been treated as such. Yes, we’re all told we could go to Hell. And yes, we’re pretty sure he means us. But few of us have the benefit of being called out by name.
Unless our PUBLIC actions call for it. And even then, there’s that nasty thing called “detraction.”
This poses a question for your readers. Was this justified, and if so, why was it NOT detraction?
October 5, 2007 at 6:37 pm
David hit the nail on the head: it’s the sin of detraction, and should not have been done. Bad judgment on the pastor’s part.
October 9, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Darn it, not a single news story gave the real guts of this tale: what is the bone of contention the teacher has with Father’s sermons? The times they are a-changin’ and this could be one of those points, but our modernist press only gives the dispute, not what the dispute is actually over. That’s because they make all things equal. Couldn’t somebody please call somebody in the know in the parish and get the real story?
October 22, 2007 at 3:08 am
I really don’t understand why Mr. Llavona is so upset. If you give your opinion in written of recorded form to someone it becomes their property. They may put in their memoirs, play it in church, publish it on a billboard or simply throw it in the trash. When he heard it played in public he found out how awful it sounded and was rightly embarrased. It is not the priest who embarrased him–he embarrased himself. Like many teachers, he is all to quick to criticize but unable to accept responsibity for his own disgraceful actions. Bravo Padre!