Now, most priests, unlike Fr. Z, have real, daily, sometimes backbreaking pastoral duties; HOWEVER, most priests, especially in affluent US dioceses receive decent salaries, are allotted meal stipends and reimbursements, have their vehicles and gas paid for, receive diocesan medical insurance, have their housing provided for them, many have housekeepers and cooks, and receive stipends from saying Mass and performing the sacraments. They are essentially bachelors who live like frat boys in their rectories with paid-for cable TV and high speed internet and all the booze they can drink. When they're "off the clock," they are men unto themselves.
When married men go home at the end of the work day, they aren't off the hook: they have a wife, children, home responsibilities, bills to pay, prayers to say.
My solution for priests: they should remain celibate and live in a quasi-monastic community at the parish, or the West should allow married men to become ordained. We must rid ourselves of the "bachelor priest."
Obviously, there are good, holy priests, and many of them; but let's end the ridiculous clericalism that is fostered by priests with cult-of-personality issues.
Clericalism has certainly become a problem with the new "blogger priest." Why, for example, is someone like Raymond Blake, who is (from what I can see) an illiterate bigot, so popular? He once said: "England probably hasn't been Christian since the Reformation." How can he say that and offer his support for the Ordinariates?
But Zuhlsdorf is something else. I would ask in all fairness how he is any different from Billy Graham or John Hagee. He just seems to be another man who makes money out of the Gospel (or his version of it).
Americans love guns and hunting. We like pretending we're still fighting the Redcoats. It's "cool" to have tactical gear. Having military rations is to prepare for the solar flare or Iranian dirty bomb that wipes out our telecommunications infrastructure. Crazy? Perhaps.
Now, most priests, unlike Fr. Z, have real, daily, sometimes backbreaking pastoral duties; HOWEVER, most priests, especially in affluent US dioceses receive decent salaries, are allotted meal stipends and reimbursements, have their vehicles and gas paid for, receive diocesan medical insurance, have their housing provided for them, many have housekeepers and cooks, and receive stipends from saying Mass and performing the sacraments. They are essentially bachelors who live like frat boys in their rectories with paid-for cable TV and high speed internet and all the booze they can drink. When they're "off the clock," they are men unto themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhen married men go home at the end of the work day, they aren't off the hook: they have a wife, children, home responsibilities, bills to pay, prayers to say.
My solution for priests: they should remain celibate and live in a quasi-monastic community at the parish, or the West should allow married men to become ordained. We must rid ourselves of the "bachelor priest."
Obviously, there are good, holy priests, and many of them; but let's end the ridiculous clericalism that is fostered by priests with cult-of-personality issues.
Clericalism has certainly become a problem with the new "blogger priest." Why, for example, is someone like Raymond Blake, who is (from what I can see) an illiterate bigot, so popular? He once said: "England probably hasn't been Christian since the Reformation." How can he say that and offer his support for the Ordinariates?
DeleteBut Zuhlsdorf is something else. I would ask in all fairness how he is any different from Billy Graham or John Hagee. He just seems to be another man who makes money out of the Gospel (or his version of it).
It must stop!
What's with people who look like slobs and their obsession with army gear? He even wants people to buy him military rations!
ReplyDeleteAmericans love guns and hunting. We like pretending we're still fighting the Redcoats. It's "cool" to have tactical gear. Having military rations is to prepare for the solar flare or Iranian dirty bomb that wipes out our telecommunications infrastructure. Crazy? Perhaps.
Delete