Second, Peace. if the shoe doesn't fit, don't have a fit. If he's not describing *your* particular situation, there's no reason for you to get defensive.
Third, unless you're an ex-seminarian or an ex-priest, this comments of yours seem a bit gratuitous: Schooling that is really, really HARD not puff courses and feelgood self-examinations like he did to earn his credentials.
Fr.Pope has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and worked with the Army Corp of Engineers as a Computer Systems Analyst before he made the decision to use his skills for the Church. He then got a Master of Divinity Degree as well as a Master of Arts Degree in Moral Theology.
All this is "puff" to you?
And then this: Ridiculous hours training for me but not for priests in training.
I don't know where you're from, but here in East Tennessee where priests are fairly few and Catholics are spread out all over, the priests and priests-in-training are basically on 24 hour call and work their tails off all over the county covering hospitals, veteran's center, prison/jail ministry, the juvenile center, hospice/nursing homes, plus the parish itself ---all this in two or three languages --- and yet were ready to sprint over to the ER to give me Last Rights when I was fading fast and on the verge of death from septicemia.
I'm not putting you down. I'm sure you'd have done the same if that were your vocation.
But don't put down the priests as a class. I'm sure there are some slackers, but the ones I know are stellar.
Msgr. Pope is one of the stellars.
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How could I have known that Msgr. Pope had a job as an engineer before becoming a priest?
I can not be expected to know that, but, given that he has these life experiences, I am now baffled that he would write an article about sloth, and bypass bashing the truly lazy in our society, and zero in on normals, accusing them of not praying enough even though they are pulling their weight as citizens and taxpayers.
He should be harshly criticizing the truly lazy in our society, the welfare queens, the coupon clippers, the druggies, the bogus disabled. BUT NOT the workers and taxpayers.
I don't think my comments have been that hard to decode.
I think that I speak from experience sitting in the pews listening to priests bash people like me, and encourage people to vote Democratic at election time, and shame us for wanting to enforce our just immigration laws (as Thomas Aquinas urged us to). They endorse free immigration, illegal immigration, and the probable reason is because the Catholic Church gets HUGE stipends to support, endorse, and embed illegal and hostile immigrants in to our American communities. I am piping up because they are bashing people like me for not wanting to pay half of my income to the government so that they can import Democrat voters and disenfranchise me permanently.
Note, please, that Msgr. Pope will NOT be disenfranchised by the sea of illegal immigrants invading the US. He is probably your classic Catholic Democrat who enjoys getting huge (and growing, each time) advantages each election cycle from all the illegal immigrant votes.
Have a nice day.