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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Priest vs the Politican, Part Deux

Forget all the analysis, multi-paragraphed letters to the editor, lawyer talk and the like; this comes down to a simple question:

Do you believe the Priest

or

Do you believe the Politician?

Janet Evans Declaration, 07.21 Edition of the Scranton Times

Now I know that the priestly profession has taken a beating of lately, but I'll note for the record that I've never really had a bad experience with a priest. In fact, some of the most insightful, compassionate, honest and kind people I've ever met have been/are priests. I can't say the same about the vast majority of politicians I've met though.

Oh, and Janet Evans is a consummate politician.

3 comments:

Tom Borthwick said...

Priests are not necessarily trustworthy because they are priests. Everybody has an agenda.

Stephen Albert said...

Being a politician doesn't necessarily make you untrustworthy. However on balance...

Anonymous said...

Tom,

You are correct- priests are not necessarily trustworthy simply becasue they are priests. Priests are people like everyone else. Trust must be earned, and the only way a priest can earn trust is to demonstrate that he is worthy of it.

It is your "everyone has an agenda" that I take issue with. The statement is vague, but certainly does not come across as a compliment.

Sir, here is a snapshot of the work a priest performs: visiting the hospitals, nursing homes, home bound parishoners, worrying about the crumbling stained glass, the broken air conditioning, the lower then usual collections, what bills will get paid, what bills will have to wait, tending to people who show up unannounced looking for a place to stay, or food, or money, going to different fucntions your parishoners might be involved in- like basketball games, graduations, etc, on call work for the hospital- for anyone (Catholic or not) who requests a priest -24/7 coverage- including holidays, ESPECIALLY Christmas.

Sir, if you call that an "agenda" then I wear it as a badge of honor.

Father Dave Bechtel