RE: What's the most face-palm-worthy statement you have ever heard from a priest/preacher
August 25, 2015 at 7:51 am
(This post was last modified: August 25, 2015 at 7:51 am by Randy Carson.)
(August 25, 2015 at 4:44 am)pool Wrote: I would still like to know why Randy thinks people could enter priesthood "for a number of reasons".
The "for a number of reasons" and also how he came to know about it.
Off the top of my head...
1. They have a genuine desire to love and serve God (but not an actual vocation).
2. They want to "do good in life", and the priesthood seemed like the best way to fulfill that desire.
3. They are pressured by family who expect some of their children to enter religious life.
4. They have an older brother who was also a priest and they felt like they needed to "keep up" with him.
5. They experience a traumatic event (near death, death of a friend) and make a rash vow to God (like Martin Luther did).
6. They have latent homosexual tendencies and decided to suppress it by joining the clergy (to avoid questions about why they aren't married).
I'm sure there are others.
I learned about vocations and the discernment process when I was a candidate at a Trappist monastery many years ago. Needless to say, in the end, I did not become a monk (for reason #1 above).
