Social Pressure On the Priest

In November 2023, I ordered from the Sisters of Carmel in Colorado Springs a crucifix on a stainless steel chain. It spoke to me because it showed the Stations of the Cross, thus reminding me of Christ’s prophetic words on making sacrifices to obtain mercy: “Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.”¹ I have since then received monthly compliments on the crucifix’s beauty, compliments which all are to be forwarded to the Sisters of Carmel in Colorado Springs whose work is a multitude of magnificence. By now, this crucifix has become a sort of trademark for me. People recognize me by the crucifix. They remember the cross, not my name, but the cross.

But the light of these honours, as the lights of all honours do, also come with a shadow. A fellow student named Jasmin once called the crucifix a “Klunker,” which is the German slur for heavy jewelry. A friend of mine named Ute once expressed worries about wearing a crucifix, because she did not want to turn the symbol of the Holy Cross into jewelry. And may God reward both of them for their remarks, which they are right to make. Their words highlighted that these honours come in the company of responsibility, because people now see me as a representative of the Church of Christ. I am a pseudo-priest outside of Holy Orders. When I sin publicly, these people will see the Church sinning; so for Christ’s sake, I cannot cut myself any slack.

St. Paul asks: “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all doctors?”² And the answer is: no. Very, very, very few of us, if any at all, are apostles, prophets, or doctors. I ask God everyday if I should cancel Ways of Wisdom and close its doors, because I am a deceitful whore, not a warrior of wisdom. I do not practice what I preach, and I feel my feeble words are utterly unworthy of the ears of the faithful, which, instead, require the words of the ordained priesthood, ordained to be heard for Christ’s sake: “He that heareth you, heareth me,” Our Lord said to them.³

Still, there is a fascination about prophecy festering out of me, a fascination that has laid the foundation for Ways of Wisdom. As Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit said in his sermon: “Now again, most of us probably don’t think of ourselves as prophets. And yet, if we would go back to our baptism and the ritual that was performed when we became disciples of Jesus through baptism, we would understand that every one of us, every baptized person, is called to be a prophet.”⁴ This is the ecumenical call that echoed out of the Second Vatican Council. And the Catechism of the Catholic Church therefore cites those documents when speaking of the laity’s role in the Church, saying, in the words of Lumen Gentium, that we should “impregnate culture and human works with a moral value.”⁵ And “that role of prophecy,” as Bishop Gumbleton said, “is to speak on behalf of God and God’s truth.”⁶

But how burdensome it is! Man is for prophecy so poorly equipped, his words weak, his stature not soaring like Noah’s dove,⁷ but sick unto death. Even St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, lamented how little-equipped she was for her vocation:

“You who know my extreme littleness,
You aren’t afraid to lower yourself to me!
Come into my heart, O white Host that I love,
Come into my heart, it longs for you!”⁸

“Come to me, poor burned souls,
Your heavy loads will soon be lightened,
And, quenched forever,
From your breast waters shall spring up.”⁹

But make no mistake here, being nice is not enough, because Christian perfection is not the same as social perfection. Christ says, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.”¹⁰ Well, to modern society, I am perfect when I am nice and tolerant; but God spoke, “I came not to send peace, but the sword,”¹¹ so niceness and tolerance are not Christian values. To modern society, I am perfect when I am a secularist; but God spoke, “I have overcome the world,”¹² so secularism is not a Christian value. Can I listen to Metal music as a Christian? Can I be publicly sad, or is public sadness a sin against Christian joy? Can I avoid society’s condemnation and God’s condemnation at once, or is one exclusive of the other?

This led me into a train of thought. Can our priests do these things? Are our priests thinking the same thoughts as me, the same thoughts of dread and despair? Dr. Jim Langley wrote that, “being a priest does not mean escaping the human condition.”¹³ So are priests as anxious about these responsibilities as I am?

When I ate dinner with a few of the parish folk in Mannhein, one of them asked our deacon, if Christian monotheism, our belief in One God,¹⁴ means that polytheistic religions are lying. The right answer would be, “Yes, they’re wrong, there’s only One God” — but that would have terrified the entire table. The deacon stuttered, stumbled, and then asked me to answer; and by mere accident, I did have an answer that did not terrify the entire table. Still, I did not expect to have a theological apology up my sleeve while eating dinner, neither did the deacon. And why should we?

While at Holy Mass in Mannheim, Fr. Franz-Leo Barden O.F.M. glanced at his wristwatch. After Holy Mass, I gossiped with my friend about it. Why? Fr. Franz-Leo is our parish priest; he works 6 days a week to offer his flock the sacraments. Still, it is not enough for me. When I see the Franciscan brothers here in the city of Mannheim, I do not see Fr. Franz-Leo, Fr. Markus, and Fr. Raphael, but their founder St. Francis of Assisi, and I expect them to be like him. I am prideful and prone to all sorts of sins, but my parish priest needs to be perfect, as perfect as St. Francis, if not even more.

To outsiders, a Catholic priest is the Catholic Church contained in one man. They are all under constant social scrutiny, a responsibility that must be impossible to not be crushed under. If the pressure is already too much for me, a lay person, then one can only imagine the pressure being put on our priests.

Dr. Ainsley Hawthorn wrote an article for the CBC titled “Priests and pastors shoulder a huge emotional burden, but they’re burning out … alone,” saying: “They visit ailing parishioners in the hospital, administer last rites to those who don’t recover, conduct their funerals, and comfort their families. They counsel couples through marital strife, divorce, and widowhood. They support church members who are affected by addiction, violence, homelessness, and poverty. Like first responders, parish priests and church leaders are on call. They must be available when a parishioner has an emergency and urgently needs their care. I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the emotional support work that parish priests do until my friend told me he was spending much of his time at the hospital with a family that was losing their toddler to a terminal illness.”¹⁵ Still, by God’s grace, our priests manage to make it through these burdens – but only by God’s grace, and all under social scrutiny.

The pressure is immense. Christians are called to perfection in God’s eyes, and tempted to perfection in the eyes of modern society, called to serve God, but also called to serve us. Perhaps this is why priests today are caught in a corner. They cannot sin, neither in the eyes of God – of course not –, nor in the eyes of society, otherwise society will condemn all Christians. What, then, is the solution, and how does one lift the social pressure off the priest? Myself, I am content in the consolation of St. Thérèse’s poetry, a sole hope in a haunting lack of solutions:

“Heaven’s the reward.
Sacrifice is for me.
Cross, chains, and hair-shirt.
These are my weapons.”¹⁶

“I suffer this exile without difficulty,
Living with my Spouse…
The chain joining me to the Jealous God
Is so sweet!…”¹⁷

O Jesus, teach us what this means, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice,” and have mercy on our priests. Amen.

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Signed Mannheim, November 13th, 2025. Published April 4th, 2026, the 2nd year since the death of The Most Rev. Thomas John Gumbleton.

1. DRB, Matthew 9:13. ↩︎
2. DRB, 1 Corinthians 12.29. ↩︎
3. DRB, Luke 10:16. ↩︎
4. Gumbleton, Thomas, “Each of us is called to be a prophet and share Jesus’ message,” National Catholic Reporter, Sep 11, 2024, www.ncronline.org/blogs/peace-pulpit/each-us-called-be-prophet-and-share-jesus-message (accessed Nov 1, 2025). ↩︎
5. CCC 909. ↩︎
6. Gumbleton, “Each of us is called to be a prophet and share Jesus’ message.” ↩︎
7. See DRB, Genesis 8:6-12. ↩︎
8. Kinney, Donald, trans. The Poetry of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2020), 233. ↩︎
9. Ibid. 125. ↩︎
10. DRB, Matthew 5:48. ↩︎
11. DRB, Matthew 10:34. ↩︎
12. DRB, John 16:33. ↩︎
13. Langley, Jim, “The joy and sufferings of a priest, and how laypeople can help,” Denver Catholic, Nov 5, 2023, www.denvercatholic.org/the-joys-and-sufferings-of-a-priest-and-how-laypeople-can-help (accessed Nov 1, 2025). ↩︎
14. CCC 200–202. ↩︎
15. Hawthorn, Ainsley, “Priests and pastors shoulder a huge emotional burden, but they’re burning out … alone,” CBC, Jan 20, 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ainsley-hawthorn-pov-priests-1.4982116 (accessed Nov 1, 2025). ↩︎
16. Kinney, The Poetry of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, 227. ↩︎
17. Ibid. 140. ↩︎