At least in terms of the "mentally ill."

(November 23, 2017 at 1:03 pm)Fireball Wrote: I heard a guest priest maunder about this back in the '90s, when I was a church goer. It appears not to have changed much, in terms of fewer priests. The celibacy is something that wasn't originally required. Hell, there were popes with big families!

They made priests celibate in the 1300's because parishes were being passed from father to son to grandson.

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(November 23, 2017 at 9:58 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(November 23, 2017 at 10:52 am)vorlon13 Wrote: "Shortage" Wololo ?

God wants a thousand priests in Ireland, God HAS a 1000 priests in Ireland.

It's heretical to criticize His Plan.  Seriously.

Well, maybe he has to have them imported from a nation that hasn't been hit by the scandals of a church that's been exposed for what it is, and where the idiot of the family is still expected to be dragged into the priesthood to keep him from doing any damage to the gene pool.

In Ireland the priesthood was for the clever son (provided he wasn't son to a doctor or lawyer). The idiot got to labour on the farm, or become a nun if a daughter.

(November 24, 2017 at 8:49 am)Jehanne Wrote: Fewer individuals believe in Catholicism; for most, it's a pro forma service that they receive in the religious marketplace.  As such, the priesthood is for those who are gay, perverted or who have a mental illness.

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(November 23, 2017 at 2:24 pm)Succubus Wrote:

If Catholicism is, indeed, true, then the above behavior makes sense and is totally justified.  The above torturers were making a last-ditch effort to save a poor sinner from the eternal fires of Hell and to preserve the Christian order in a Christian (Catholic) society whose monarch was accountable to the One and Triune God.

Of course, no one believes in Hell, or that people go there, and no one in the Church these days really believes in god, either.  I suspect that Pope Francis is a closet atheist, or at least agnostic.

Nah. That illustration is the answer to the short priest problem.

(November 24, 2017 at 11:52 am)Wololo Wrote:

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(November 23, 2017 at 9:58 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: Well, maybe he has to have them imported from a nation that hasn't been hit by the scandals of a church that's been exposed for what it is, and where the idiot of the family is still expected to be dragged into the priesthood to keep him from doing any damage to the gene pool.

In Ireland the priesthood was for the clever son (provided he wasn't son to a doctor or lawyer). The idiot got to labour on the farm, or become a nun if a daughter.

Maybe in Ireland that was the case; I have heard that it was different in other places (maybe in England).

(November 24, 2017 at 12:40 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(November 24, 2017 at 11:52 am)Wololo Wrote:

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In Ireland the priesthood was for the clever son (provided he wasn't son to a doctor or lawyer). The idiot got to labour on the farm, or become a nun if a daughter.

Maybe in Ireland that was the case; I have heard that it was different in other places (maybe in England).

Always was good money in priesting in this country. And if you were clever about it there was always a comely lad (or lass if you were a weirdo) to warm your bed at night.