Dear Father,

As a young Roman Catholic, I've often been faced with the dilemna of whether or not to enter into the priesthood. However, I have always dismissed the idea on the basis of the following reasons:

1) As Augustine, I am guilty of numerous sins of the flesh. I know priests aren't expected to be perfect, but there is a certain level I feel I am required to meet before I can consider myself worthy of entering into the priesthood.

2) I am not certain that I have a faith in God. While I can not deny the existence of God, and have heard numerous arguments for God's existence as well as an inherent faith. I do not believe in God without doubt. I have heard Clement of Alexandria and St. Aquinas say that no one will be able to believe god fully. Aquinas goes on and says that if God were shown fully to us our faith would have no merit, and thus we will always have doubt. However, this doubt also leads me to believe that through joining the priesthood, I could possibly be living a lie. I also fear that there may be no God and I have spent a life's work encouraging people to believe in something that does not exist.

3) I am not certain whether or not I want a family at this stage of my life. While I believe that each person has someone out there for him/her, I am finding it extremely hard to find any one with my values. Thus, I wonder if whether I am tempted to join the priesthood only in order to be given an excuse to give up my search for the ideal woman. As one friend already pointed out, I never do consider growing up alone as a single male an option.

4) While I am generally quite good mannered, I often don't think before speaking. As a result, I have put my foot in my mouth on numerous occasions which has resulted in actions such as saying or doing an improper thing which one would not expect a priest to do. I do not want to be doing these actions as a priest. Therefore, i consider myself unsuitable to be a priest.

Thanx, for your time. Great Web page.

-- Sincerely,

Dave

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