I’m born and raised Catholic, and still consider myself to be a Catholic, but I have not met a Priest in years that I consider to be a real man. Why they have allowed their seminaries to be pussified is beyond me. Who in the Catholic church is man enough to wield the sword of St. Peter? Not the nursery school psychologists who pass for priests nowadays.
I understand, but take heart. After all the embarrassing news about priests, it is my feeling that only those with a true vocation will be interested in becoming priests these days. It’s not the exalted job it once was. Few people consider them princes of the church anymore.
The priests ordained during the 60’s and 70’s are mostly the problem. Many are complete milquetoasts! I’ve looked at the young, new priests who’ve just been ordained and they seem more like real men. Anyone becoming a priest today must surely realize he is there to toil in the vineyard and be a servant. And isn’t that what Christ really wanted from them? Keep your eye on the very young ones and see what you think.
I was once very discouraged about it and an old, traditional priest told me not to be afraid for the Church. The Holy Spirit is still in charge. I think of him often and his words still encourage me.
Our rector is a fire-breathing Irish dreadnought who is built like a fireplug, with hands like hams. I would flat be afraid to cross him, and I'm not afraid of very many people.
I wasn't a Catholic then, but I heard that when he used to work for the Chancery back in the late 70s or early 80s, 2 priests here were busted for molesting boys. After disposing of them (one went to prison, the other died in a remote monastery), he made a personal tour of all the parishes and told each and every one of the clergy that if he heard of any more of that sort of thing, he would turn them over to the police - AFTER he personally worked them over. Nobody took him up on the offer, so far as I know, but he's a man of his word and no doubt would have delivered.
One of our Parochial Vicars is an Air Force veteran and a splendid young man, just assigned to us but we had him to dinner and he's a very fine, frank outdoor type. Our last PV but one we lost as he was tapped to direct vocations for the Archdiocese - very charismatic, the young people loved him, he was another athletic type who mountain biked and ran marathons. And the PV after that is probably headed for a mitre - a great big black guy with a mouth full of wisecracks and a heart full of love and courage.
Our second Parochial Vicar is a reed-thin, ascetic type of young man, but if he lacks physical strength and prowess he has moral courage in spades (he's the man who preached the pre-election homily that never mentioned a certain pro-death candidate < cough cough > by name, but made his point perfectly clear.) He fears nothing.
Don't know what your bishop is up to, but ours seems to have chosen well. Our seminary's full too, we have two seminarians assigned to us and they both seem like nice manly young men.
Come hang out where I live if you want to meet real men who are ordained. I’ve never seen so many as the night 28 Monsignors were made. Every one of them had more than a little swagger to their step.