How Priests Should Not Speak

Like me, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, who writes a column at Patheos, did not much care for a recent essay by Cara McDonough.  But, such nastiness from a man of the cloth as he displays in this article leads one to suggest this priest has some anger issues that would warrant his attention. When confronted with a fellow Catholic whose opinions a priest finds disturbing, I think the appropriate tone is one more or sadness than of anger for a priest. Bloggers live by a different set of vocational rules and an occasional smack down goes with the turf. Priests who also blog, however, need to remember that they are still a priest first, even ontologically, and that such vituperative attacks ill become their priestly vocation.