What do priests do all day?

[Casilda]

Contraception, yes. Plus, the church scandals, real and promoted, do tend to scare away some young men.

We are going from a three-priest parish to a one-priest parish on Sept 1st, and you could tell today, the congregation was skittish with all the news. Now, we will go from two daily masses, including monday night novena, rosary and adoration, one daily mass, no adoration, and no mass on Thursdays at all.

My still-unmarried son, who has danced around the priesthood since he was 11 has told me now (in his m id 20s): nope. forget it. He doesn’t say why but worked in a local parish for six months full time and the politics in the office and among the parishioners made him physically sick.

He’s not lazy, but said he was just not interested in all the bruhaha priests have to endure on a daily basis.

I am so sorry for his decision. I will pray for more outspoken priests that can rid the church of the busybodies that are harassing those who would enter into vocations and those who simply want to enter the church.

 

[Angel_Bradford]

And don’t forget those phone calls in the middle of the night to anoint someone who’s dying.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

The only way to solve this dilemma is to limit the amount parishioners a priest can adequately administer to. I’ve read where it would ideally be 1:150 people. Not 1:1250 families. Something is broken in the system that has allowed the disparity. Can anybody answer the question of why so few priests?

Contraception, collapse of orthodox seminaries, severe vocation shortage, a lot of angry priests expecting Vatican II to undo priestly celibacy and then returning to the lay state to get married. Etc.