If the priest has his own separate room and there are other males around to ensure nothing funny goes on, it seems ok to me. The same danger can also happen if the priest were to spend the night in a hotel. Many priests spends the night in similar circuмstances in mission chapels where the chapel has no bedroom for the priest. 

 OP, sounds like you are overly scrupulous and overly suspicious. I see nothing wrong with the situation you described. Is there more to it?

As long as there are other men in the house I don't see a problem. It is necessary for a priest to sleep somewhere.

Last comment was by me. 

Quote from: Stubborn 7/12/2022, 4:55:49 AM
For many years we had priests who were expelled or left their rectories stay at our house many times over night when the revolution was in it's infancy. It is regretful when the priest is a Liberal, but other than that it is a good thing.

Independent priests need someplace to sleep, shower and eat too you know. Although such a thing was very rare before V2, these days you have do what needs to be done, often at great inconvenience to you - and you can get a special blessing for doing it.

"And into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into the house, salute it, saying: Peace be to this house. And if that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you..." - Mat. 10:11-13

The alternative is that whoever turns them away may be liable to something worse than what happened to Sodom and Gomorrha for not receiving them...
[14] "...And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet. Amen I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city."

Good response.

Basically as long as propriety is observed, there is no problem. That is to say, there are others in the house, etc. You can't have a priest stay with a young single woman. That would be an occasion of scandal.

When it comes to avoiding scandal, and even the appearance of evil, we are obligated somewhat. Yes, "haters gonna hate" and you can't stop them from disparaging the Church, even if they have to make up lies. NEVERTHELESS, we are not permitted to hand them "ammo", legitimate suspicions or evidence, on a silver platter. You don't want to give them a legitimate defense before the judgment seat of God that the Catholic Church was clearly full of hypocrites, etc. so they didn't investigate joining it. God is just. But remember, if God shows mercy to them in one area, for example on one choice they made (they will likely still lose their soul), God WILL require it of you on the other hand. God is just. His justice must be satisfied. If you gave a person honest, legit reasons to avoid the Catholic Church, God will punish you.

But all that having been said, we must not "play it safe" and tell all priests they must find lodging elsewhere. That would be inhospitable, and would show a lack of generosity with God. In the early Church, priests stayed in the homes of families -- and that is what the Church has been reduced to now. THAT is what we should compare our behavior with -- not the Church of the 1940s or 1950s. Those days are far gone from us. We have itinerant priests trying to take care of hundreds of Faithful each. They are always on-the-go and need places to rest. St. Paul and a modern-day missionary priest (say, of the Resistance) would have a lot in common, a lot they could talk about.

While ordinarily, I think it would be OK, even if not ideal, provided that there are others in the home and that the priest isn't alone with these females, the perception offered by OP that he's "obviously too familiar with his single female friends" does give me pause.  If in fact the priest is already "too familiar" with these females, or there's a common perception among the faithful along those lines, that would render the otherwise-tolerable situation problematic.  But I'm not sure what that observation is based on.

Anyone else reminded of Father Intintola from The Sopranos?