Quote from: Matthew

Quote from: Tiffany

I do think priests should have at least a part-time person to cook, clean, do laundry. They are on call 24/7 sometimes and he always need a clean shirt to wear.  

That said there is a big difference between entitled to gourmet meals and a housekeeper/cook that comes in for four hours in the afternoon to help him with cleaning, laundry, shopping or cooking dinner.

 Every NO priest I have met has a woman that serves as a housekeeper and cook for him. All were humble men, they were not the entitled type.

I would think the teen girls and older women in the parish would want to volunteer to help their priest too?

I don't think it's appropriate for teen girls to serve as housekeepers in the rectory. If women are to be found in the rectories, they should be matronly. That is, older and not a temptation for men.

The SSPX seminary in the USA has an matronly lady (of German descent) for a secretary. She did a great job, and she certainly didn't cause any temptation for the seminarians. Bishop Williamson chose her on purpose.

I was not thinking of a teen girl there for 12 hours a day alone. I thought of groups of girls like sisters or cousins going together for a couple of hours every week. When you see communities with less feminism, it's the unmarried older teen girls that have time for things like cleaning for others.

I disagree that only "matronly" women should serve priests.

In other times people would kiss the priests ring finger when greeting him rather than shaking his hand.  

"The new SSPX priests appear to be inept at everything having to do with working with the hands."

That maybe because nearly all the young men coming up, priests and otherwise, have spent more time in their formative years playing video games and surfing the net than doing real-world things. Some don't have the kind of men available in their families to acquire the skills you speak of. Others, sadly, may not want to soil their hands with work better left to the peasants.
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Well, part of that might just be cultural difference between French and Anglos.  I know that, despite growing up speaking English, I don't feel at home around Anglos except very rarely because of the large gulf of cultural mindset that comes from being conscience of my heritage and the French traditions of my family.  Besides, the English-speaking cultures have been steeped in centuries of Protestantism, as is especially evident in attitudes toward work, food, drink, smoking, liberty, hierarchy, science, and so on.  

Pastors of souls ought, on no account, to be ignorant of the reason why they are placed higher than other men: it is not so much that they may govern others, as that they may serve them.

~ Abbot Rupert (Rup., Div. Off., xii. 18)

Quote from: Telesphorus

I do think the real problem is an attitude of arrogance.  It is unmistakable, and it wafts an acrid odor in its wake.

This is certainly not a description of Fr. Thierry Gaudray or ABL.  As for sticking to eating dry bread dipped in wine as in Diary of a Country Priest, I read that book.  And if I remember correctly, that lovely old priest died of stomach cancer.  As for the way the French talk--I find it lovely.  At least they try to speak our language; whereas, Americans expect everyone to speak English. And I can't fathom how any nation who practically lives on hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza and macaroni and cheese, can criticize a masterful use of God's gifts, both in talent and of the land we have been given dominion over.  Lastly, if the SSPX priests had time fit in "shop" along with their Theology courses, then maybe they would do some handyman chores for themselves--that is, if they could find the time between Mass, traveling, sick calls and the schools they have been given charge over.  And in that case, I would think that time would be better spent in prayer.    

 :ready-to-eat:  

   

... the parishioners at the country parishes would always give the priest the first bushels from the annual harvest.. In other times people would kiss the priests ring finger when greeting him rather than shaking his hand.  ...meat shops would give priests a free ham here and there.

I have a high regard for austerity and simplicity, especially amongst the clergy, but I find it hard to believe that St Jean Marie Vianney even did not have somebody from the parish help clean his house, since such help and service would most likely have been offered, and it is right for priests to allow themselves to be honoured in that way.

I am only speaking of the hierarchy of honour and respect that natural piety has reserved for priests for the simple reason that they are consecrate men of God.  In France, hierarchy is more preserved in the culture of the faithful, whereas in the US, exceptionally, and in other Anglophone countries, this deference is wanting.

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If however, priests started demanding the finest foods, and spirits, cigars, which is what I'm talking about, stuffs, that even the rich parishioners do not demand of the poorer, the people would abandon their reverence of priests.

Insufferable behavior.