well, my experience is limited to one priest. The people of his parish would strongly disagree with you; he was a holy, kind, thoughtful, and considerate priest who gave awesome homilies. His being married was not an issue.
He may or may not be. One only has to look at the number of homosexual incidents between celibate priests and teenage boys to know that a minor group of priests didn’t make that grade. Some are happy, some are not. A goodly number left to get married - they obviously were not happy. Your comment is simply not universal. There are many priests who are happy to be celibate, some of them happy because they don’t have the responsibilities. They play golf regularly, are asked out to dinner at various homes,** drive as nice or nicer cars (courtesy of parishioners) than many of the parishioners, dine out often, own vacation homes… And they admit that. Hardly what celibacy is supposed to be about.**
You missed the point entirely. Someone who thinks the priest “won’t get it” because they have never been married is not going to go to the priest in the first place. And the confessional is not the place to figure out how to resolve marital difficulties - it may surprise you, but not all marital difficulties are sin.
The bold is mine.
Just a quick correction here.
A diocesan priest is a celibate man. However, celibacy has nothing to do with this detail that I bolded. It looks as if you’re taking a cheap shot at the diocesan priest.
You may not know this, just for clarification. Diocesan priests are secular men, just like the many dads sitting in the pews on Sunday. They are not consecrated men. Therefore, Church law demands that parishes pay them a salary equivalent to any other profession with the same level of education and experience, also according to their rank, just as in any other secular organization.
They purchase their cars and their vacation homes with their salaries. They are also entitled to have income from any source they want, including family businesses and inheritances. If the son of Bill Gates were a diocesan priest, he would be entitled to inherit Microsoft and enjoy it, according to Church law. He is a secular man.
They do not drive at the parish’s expense. The parish must give them mileage for those trips that are related to parish business, just like any other corporation. Outside of that, their insurance, car payments, and maintenance comes out of their salary. They also pay taxes, like any other citizen. They are not entitled to receive Social Security through the diocese. They are independent contractors. Therefore, they pay their full Social Security out of their salary, unlike the person who is an employee of a company. Some parishes cannot afford a diocesna priest. Therefore, they contract with a religious order. Religious orders do not charge a salary for their members. Usually, a religious order will give to a parish three men for the price of one. Because it is very important to the order to have a community there, so that there is community life. In that case, there is no private ownership of cars or vacation homes. Religious are consecrated men and can own nothing. Everything is owned by the parish. When they leave, everything remains behind.
Let’s not make unfair statements. Celibacy has nothing to do with poverty. Poverty is a vow made only by consecrated men and women, not by diocesan priests or society priests either, such as SSPX, FSSP, Maryknoll, Missionhurst, Oratorians, etc. These men are entitled to earn their pay.
Yes, some play golf too. They do not have a community life, like the consecrated man. Therefore, when he is not on duty, his time is his own. It does not belong to the faithful nor to a religious community.
Our house is two blocks from a diocesan rectory. When we leave the work site, we return to the community house to do laundry, scrub floors, community meals, community recreation, community prayers. We have one care for three of us, which is 11-years old. When one guy needs the car, the other two guys take the bus or walk.
Meanwhile, our friends at the diocesan rectory do not have these obligations. I say our friends, because we truly are friends. We get along very well and they often do us the favor of giving us a ride. When they finish at 4:30, they are off duty until the next day. Only one of them is on-call for the hospital. They take turns on this. When the Chancery where I work closes at 5:00, I go off to teach CCD, meetings, and community functions until 12:00 am. Then I get up again at 4:45 am for community prayers. They don’t have any of this. That’s why they are called secular priests.
They live in the same house. That’s it. They don’t have to look at each other, if they don’t want to. These guys actually get along very well. But they don’t have get along. Consecrated men do. That being said, none of them play golf. LOL
Let’s be fair to people. Let’s not expect things of them that are not part of their vocation. They have a promise of celibacy, not a vow of chastity . . . two very different commitments. They overlap, but they are different.
I hope that helps.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
Perhaps a re-read of [post=7087772]JReducation’ post[/post] might be useful.