My excuse...

I really don't care about so much of the stuff that seems to be the life-blood of the Church these days.

One of the problems for me of being a priest in this time is that I'm just not a program type of guy and right now the Church is all about program (still?--yes). I want reality, not programs.

I wonder if this is just the cost of doing business (and even that kind of talk is already deadly, BTW)... I wonder if it's just necessary in our time and place... Or is it just some by-product of the true religion of our time (What do we want to name it? How might we describe it?) that the Church has been (too easily) assimilated to... the religion that we really practice... a bowing down to the god(s) that we really trust? The kind of religion that has no problems with language like "the cost of doing business."

In any case I don't get it and I don't want to. The Church can only be retarded by it. It certainly isn't a neutral phenomenon.

I suppose this could all just be an excuse.

When it comes down to it, I just want to pray, to study, to celebrate the Mass (and the other sacraments) and preach, to teach, to offer spiritual guidance and pastoral care, and to be re-made by the Holy Spirit operating in these things and in the community that the Holy Spirit is re-making through them into the Body of Christ. Is that so strange for a priest?