How hard is the life of a Catholic priest?

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i was in the navy & shared a room with 7 other officers

but i was young & dumb and not trying to minister & counsel to people

to me, for grown, middle aged men, the conditions i’ve described (real in my parish) seem border-line prison-like
 
My pastor has a 4000 square foot house completely to himself. We rent office space elsewhere for the church. He also has housekeeping and maintenance done for him. He has several secretaries, a full time business manager, full time financial officer, two full time DRE staff, plus an army of volunteers to deal with other needs and the parish barely gets 1000 people at all four Masses combined. Why? Not all parishes are poor…
 
Unfortunately they are looking at empty churches…

What is this “empty nest” you talk about. Once they leave I am no longer the parent? I thought this was a lifetime vocation. It is not like their problems get any easier as they age…
 
I think the priests nowadays tend to be very overworked and if they have some help with housekeeping or cooking, that’s a good thing, they definitely need that.

My impression in the 70s and 80s was that a lot of the younger priests were taking way too much “me time” and a number of them “me timed” themselves right out of the priesthood. I remember one of them on a retreat who had just been ordained. He had a sportscar with a vanity plate, and special golf outfits and talked a lot about the time he spent playing golf. I don’t begrudge a priest having a little fun, but this guy was over the top, he was more like a yuppie than a priest. I often wonder if he is still in the priesthood.
 
My Godfather is a priest.

Whenever I meet with him, he always gives me his full intention though much of our time is rushed. It’s simply his nature. He overlooks two churches and is constantly working. Sometimes he sounds like he’s a counsellor putting out fires so to speak. It’s a 24/7 job and often thankless. It’s a very difficult life at times.
 
I once saw a monk and a fellow layman (maybe his apprentice) buying food at the supermarket - they were buying mostly half-cooked or pre-cooked meal. Not of the very best kind. They clearly didn’t know what to buy. I felt empathy towards them and I did wonder how come they didn’t know how to cook when the best chefs in the world are men. Maybe they didn’t give attention to food or to cooking in general.
 
Although my pastor has Fridays as his “day off” that seems to be the day most funerals are held as well as wedding rehearsals, so he rarely gets a day off.
 
Mary888 said:
I did wonder how come they didn’t know how to cook when the best chefs in the world are men. Maybe they didn’t give attention to food or to cooking in general.
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Some of the best mathematicians in the world are men too. That doesn’t mean every man (50 percent of the population) knows how to solve a quadratic equation. By the way, there are women among the “best chefs in the world” too. There are also women who can’t boil water on the stove.

Also, people don’t necessarily buy half cooked or pre-cooked food because they don’t know how to cook. They buy it because it’s a time-saver. I buy it all the time because I want to eat a particular dish, let’s say ribs, but I don’t want to spend all the time it takes to prepare and cook the ribs and clean up afterwards, and it’s cheaper to buy pre-cooked ribs from the store than to order them from a restaurant. I imagine the monk and his assistant were busy.

It’s also possible the food wasn’t even for them but perhaps was to give to someone in need, who didn’t have the time or ability to cook food from scratch.

Bottom line is don’t assume.
 
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I wasn’t criticizing them. I was just impressed by the situation. They looked somewhat helpless and childlike despite their age.
 
In the average US Parish, the priest will have a home/apartment with internet and cable (or satellite, foreign born priests usually opt for satellite so they can watch programming from “back home”). They have hobbies and interests, on their time off they go fishing or play golf or watch movies or waterski or go to a concert or they run or they ride bikes or they ride motorcycles or they rescue dogs… any sort of interest that you or I might have. They don’t simply sit around in their down time humming chant and changing the flowers on the Altar.

They do often share their living quarters with staff. That means they look forward to days when the office is closed for a little bit of privacy!
 
I think it depends on the Bishop. Our Archbishop takes great pains to meet with them, encourage them to take personal time, retreat opportunities, and show them how to draw privacy lines. When our priests are attacked by nut jobs they get 100% support.
They build up to date rectories if the parish funds can cover it easily.
It’s a hard life, but our Archbishop realizes that you can’t work a guy into the ground and get the best and most productive life out of him.
 
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