At least they didn't go to the beach.

At least they didn't go to the beach.

That'll be next.

Quote from: Quo Vadis Petre

Text and photos courtesy of Fr. Leo Haynos.

Being a man, a priest needs to take recreation occasionally, to renew and refresh his body and soul.

A good community life is extraordinarily helpful to a priest to help him stay faithful. Constantly bombarded by the world he feels very much alone. Yet men are social, and he needs company he can enjoy; if he cannot find it with his fellow priests, he will look for it elsewhere.

While it may be debatable if priests should be enjoying their recreational activities at a public place such as Seaworld, it certainly gives an extremely bad example to those whom are practicing abstinence, mortification, sacrifices, and penance during this holy season of lent.

During this past week of lent, our Lord was in the Garden of Gethesemany, taking upon Himself the sins of the world and be so crushed under their terrible weight that His precious blood flowed from every pore of His body.......while these neo-SSPX priests were having the time of their lives in enjoying the joyrides and fine foods at an amusement park.


 
God have mercy on them.

This is an excellent point, I hadn't thought of that.  If nothing else, this shouldn't happen in Lent, period.

The following surmise is not meant to make excuses or justify, just an observation.

We lived in this area for almost 15 years.  Most who lives in Orlando know someone who works for one of the theme parks.  Outside of a few professional industries, the majority workforce is supporting the gargantuan and low paying hospitality industry, often at one of the entertainment venues.  The employees  typically share their complimentary employee tickets/access with friends and relatives.  My guess is that the  fathers received their tickets as a gift from a parishioner.  
For example, someone in our family worked part time at one of the Disney golf courses, so we gave our complimentary tickets to our trad priests for attendance at a Christmas musical performance. It's so commonly done in Orlando, but of course it's proper that a priest should select the entertainment with exceeding discrimination.

Despite the roller coasters (one of which travels through and provides a special view of one of the aquariums), SeaWorld offers a tremendous up close experience with Gods fascinating creations...  if one can stay detached from the pagan dress and manners.
But, IMHO, SeaWorld is definitely head and shoulders above the Disney/Universal mindset.  

I will leave the discussion of appropriateness to greater minds than mine.  

All enjoyment must wait until Eastertide.

What can one do during Lent, then?  No reading?  No listening to music?  Can one go fishing or relax on the weekend?

I think the attitude of some here are overly rigorous. No one has ever been required to give up all pleasure and recreation as penance.

Not even the most strict monasteries forced monks to only use freezing cold water, sleep on nails, eat stale bread and water, etc.

It's not the fact of the matter as such.

I mean, look, some of these men are still being formed.  Could it possibly be justified to do this during Lent?  Maybe, possibly probably, but why do it in the first place during Lent?  Bad example for the priest that's being formed and the laity.  

Unless maybe they did it on a first class feast, like St Joseph's feast day or something.

And then of course it sets a poor example for the laity too, for the same reason.