There’s three main criteria if you want to be a priest: i) male, ii) good at theology, iii) Catholic. I am all three of these and you would not believe how many people ask me “oh, so you’re going to be a priest?”

Depending on who I’m dealing with, I’m either really flattered or really irritated by this. One one hand, it’s nice to be told ‘you’d make a good priest’ but on the other, it’s annoying that people think theology is a subject that only leads to the priesthood.

When I tell them I don’t want to be a priest, they usually proceed to give me a list of reasons why it’d be great; free house, free car, free clothes, free money, power, authority, respect, juicy gossip in confession etc. Whilst these would be pretty compelling in any other career, they are the wrong reasons for becoming a priest. If you wanted to be a priest, you’d want to be one regardless of these. I once tried to explain this to someone but was greeted with a blank “why-did-I-ask” stare. It seems that some people don’t understand that religious orders aren’t just like any other job; they’re something sacred.

Labels: religious life