PRIEST 1:
Recently, a young priest who featured on this blog, in a negative fashion, contacted me to thank me for blogging about him even though at the time it hurt and angered him.
He said that the Blog exposure had let him to discern that the priesthood was not a suitable way of life for him and that he had decided to leave the priesthood and begin a new life.
He gave me his name and reminded me of all the circumstances.
His call took me completely by surprise and I had not expected him to view things in that way.
Thank God he is now moving on to a life where he can be his authentic self and not cause himself and others any more hurt.
PRIEST 2:
Another priest whose name I don’t know, and have no need to know contacted Robert Nugent recently and told him:
“Pat Buckley blogged about me and I didn’t like it. But he did the right thing”.
OTHERS
I have become friends with a small number of priests and ex seminarians who have featured on this blog and I am in their lives in positive ways.
“God writes straight with crooked lines”.
TRAPPED PRIESTS:
There are priests out there who are trapped in the priesthood. They don’t know what to do or where to go. They stay, and each day is miserable for them.
Some of these priests entered the priesthood due to parental pressure.
Some of them entered the priesthood because they could not accept who they were and went in to hide in the clerical closet.
In that closet they had a roof over their heads, an acceptable salary for a single man, respect and esteem from their community etc.
But they became not only miserable, but very lonely, sad and depressed.
They coped with the help of alcohol, drugs and casual sex.
They pretended to their clerical peers and bishop that all was well.
But all was not well.
The lucky ones fell in love and left.
The unlucky ones became more and more trapped and dysfunctional.
As the psychologist said: “The lived lives of quiet desparation” 😞
THIS BLOG
This Blog and I personally are hated in many clerical and hierarchical circles.
Robert Nugent delta some that hate on Wednesday.
I’ve lived with this for so long I cope with the hatred and derision very well at this stage.
But I genuinely want to see the Catholic Church and its priesthood cleansed and renewed.
I’ve wanted to be a priest since I was 4 years old.
Now, 46 years ordained I love my life as a priest more than ever.
When Cahal Daly “sacked” me in 1986 he told people: “He’ll be gone in 6 weeks”.
That was 36 years ago I and I’m not gone yet.
At our last meeting I told CD that as he was marginalising me, I would spend my life ministering to others on the margins and that this would be a lifetime’s work.
My ministry has evolved into being the “go to” man for people hurt by the Church bishops and priests.
Everyday I get new letters and calls.
I believe that my blog is helping the Church and priests – in ways they do not always recognise.
Remember:
“The hand that hurts can be the hand that heals”.
We see this in the life and work of dedicated surgeons.
Currently the Catholic Church needs major surgery.
This Blog may be one operating theatre?
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BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 