156. Being a Priest Today is No Fun

“To consider the Catholic priesthood in this day means that a man's manhood and sanity will both be questioned until he drops such a silly idea.”

Those are the words of Fr Gregory Pilcher whom I befriended on facebook and have sparked off the theme for this blog. This being “Year for Priests” and the 60 years anniversary of Ordination of my cousin Father Giuseppe, celebrated last Sunday, I thought it worth spending some time on the matter.

Fr Giuseppe leads the way and his relations, among which I am one, follow

In Italy, traditionally a Catholic country with a distinct separation between church and state made only in the 1980s, there is a red-hot undercurrent vein of anti-clericalism running through the social structure. Priests have been accused of anything from paedophile to embezzlement, of which some accusations have been found to be true, some not. But of course there is no church or institution on this earth which is immune from scandal since where there are human beings there is also human frailty, sin and disorder. But also where there are human beings you get heroism, dedication, selflessness and unconditional love. These latter qualities, of course, go unnoticed, hardly ever hit the headlines.

Lyric Singer Dominika Zamara

What indeed goes straight to the front page are the weaknesses of mankind and it only takes one erring priest to brand the entire category much to the joy of the anti-clerics who spread the news far and wide like wild fire. Maybe because there are relatively more priests in Italy than in most other nations and therefore the chance of them slipping up are multiplied or because the Italians as a nation are renown for being sensual romantics, be it whatever it is, it remains Italian priests are more easily targeted than others and get a reputation, rightly or wrongly, of all being clones of Father Ralph, beautifully acted by Richard Chamberlain in “Thorn Birds”.

Only some days back I chanced to read this sentence in the UK Times by Rosemary Righter:

“Italians do not care to be preached at, whether by priggish priests (not known in too many parishes for sexual abstinence), by the righteous political left or by foreigners accusing them of voting for someone who is a “danger to democracy”.

Lunch

The bold print is my doing, but I quoted that just to show such is the general impression people have abroad of Italian priests. All I can say is tough luck! Maybe it has not occurred to some journalists that a number of priests, because of their inaccessibility also become to some women quite irresistible and any amount of fantasies are created around their person? Maybe some journalists have never looked directly into a priest’s eyes and saw the spirituality that is embedded within them. I have taken quite a number of close-up photos of priests, at all levels, I have yet to see a roving eye- and the camera does not lie.

But it is asides like the one I found above which only reveals that most people have never reflected on the life of a Catholic Priest nor on the question of celibacy of members of a religious community, men or women. To the mind of most individuals, members of a religious order who take the vows of chastity means they are giving up their sexuality. Nothing could be further from the truth since it is the sex drive that give us the power of creativity and that is not limited only to making babies either! Some go so far as to say that everything behind what we do is achieved through the sexual drive. The sexual drive is so strong that footballers are not allowed to consummate it days before a game... is that why football and footballers are so popular- the sexual energy is spilt out on the field? Is that why professors and nerds often delude the sexual expectations of their partners- because they have sublimated their sexuality? Because that is what happens when one sublimates one’s sexuality, it transfers, transforms the sexual energy on another activity another interest, it does not become defunct, extinct and “given up”.

Greeting parishioners after Mass

Hence, there you have it, it is not just priests who sublimate their sexuality- I would go so far as to say that the next largest category of people, apart from footballers and professors who sublimate their sexuality are writers and artists, after all it takes a lot from the sexual drive to write one’ heart’s renderings. And just in case you are looking for a mate, steer away from sex bombs, be they male or female, they do not sublimate their sexuality and have allowed most of their intelligence to locate itself only down in their nether limbs!

Now then, let’s see what you can find to gossip about on this picture.