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inthelamb
Guest
How could one respond to a pastoral associate who says that the recent increase in priests from the Third World is because the priesthood provides a good education and a good income?
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M
Michelle_Arnold
Guest
One could simply ask what exactly is wrong with desiring a good education and a good income. But then one would also have to ask why men in these countries, which are predominantly in Muslim sub-Saharan Africa, would choose to risk harrassment, persecution, imprisonment, and martyrdom solely in order to secure a good education and a good income. If those were the only motivators, it would be safer and more practical to seek to ingratiate oneself with the local government rather than choose a vocation that would put a person on a governmental short list of suspected “rebels.”
Basically, the pastoral associate’s conclusions are predicated on the idea that the priesthood is a “job” and that those who seek it out are motivated by careerist agendas. That may unfortunately be the case in some First World countries where the understanding of the priesthood as a call to service and sacrifice have largely been lost; but, in developing countries that are newly receiving the faith and whose converts have to fight for their faith, the vocational aspects of the priesthood are more likely to be the reason why Christian men in those countries choose to serve God through becoming priests.
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