Do you know any Priests that are a bit eccentric?

Father jack

Open toe sandals, rides a motorbike and trains GAA? Sound guy too by all appearances.

I find most of them odd as opposed to eccentric

There’s was a priest in Dublin from Germany in the late 50s early 60s whose hobby was flying private planes , not particularly eccentric but apparently he was in the Luftwaffe n the war and flew a Stuka dive bomber.

There was a fantastic priest in my local area in Limerick when I was growing up. Fr Joe Young was his name. He was involved in youth and community events in my area. He was chairman of Limerick FC for a while, and was responsible for getting Sam Allardyce over as player manager of Limerick FC for one season. I always found him eccentric as he used to sing at Limerick FC's home ground on occasion, belting out "Born in the USA".

Growing up we'd a few including a sort of Fr jack character, not the PP but his elderly senior. Kicked a punk out of Christmas midnight mass for being a punk and a right grumpy git. Taught science by a Jesuit a chemist he showed us how alcohol was made by making a batch of potin and previously having worked with Mediecine san frontier he regaled us with stories and facts about tropical diseases.

What is?

It's not a prerequisite. They're only human and, like in all walks of life, there are some who are eccentric, some downright nuts, some very intelligent and some clueless. But others are sound and decent honest people trying to do some good in society.

One I knew was a qualified pilot and flying instructor…. Fr Tommy McCarthy…. He had two stints as the Chaplin of the Dublin airport church. A sound guy with lots of interests outside his primary job…aviation, travel and sport being three…if you met him out shopping he’d just be in civvies and seemed to just enjoy life and was never as absolutely tied to the day job and the trappings of it as some.. eccentric might have been a stretch but he was very different considering the job title … died back in ‘22, a good man, lovely man actually…

When I lived in Paris the chaplain to the Irish community was a Fr Des Knowles…. Like Fr Tommy he had no airs and graces about him, liked sports, loved his few pints, music and socialising with the Irish community .. Whether that was off to one of the Irish pubs in the city or hanging with the crowd where he lived in the Irish College as it was back then….just watching a match, film or whatever… good company, nice manner and generous wit.….left any religious persona for the time he was doing that work, 90% of the time he was in civvies…

I have it on good authority his successor who I did meet briefly was not accepted quite as wilfully…. and that might be corroborated by the fact Des ended up back in Paris replacing him after a short time.

great craic with a few jars too which he was partial too but never any hassle…. Genially nice guy regardless.

One of the priests in my parish was an alcoholic. I was an alter boy when young and he would be knocking back wine before the sermon and would say mass drunk. It was a quick mass though. No longer then 30 mins.

God would have understood. And then there is the confession booth as well.

I recall once, in a priest who was so drunk during a funeral, ne nearly fell into the grave and somebody had to hold him back.

Oddly, the guy who's funeral it was was an alcoholic himself and would have understood.

That will happen eventually.

the number of priests is at an all time low. A serious decline so there will have to be compromise. I’d say the next pope or the one after will have his hand forced when the existence of a lot of parishes worldwide is challenged through lack of priests. Amalgamating parishes or as has happened in our area where three or four parishes are in what they calling a ‘grouping’ and various priests give a dig out in the different parishes and churches within that grouping as and when it is required.

you might have a ‘calling’ but I’d be fûcked if I’d be signing up to take on a role where I’m a sole priest in a parish, about 9 or 10 masses a week, confession, ad hoc funerals ( arnt they all ) christening, attending sick / dying people….plus some admin.

id guesstimate

masses 15 hours ( including one mass a week at local old folks home )

funerals - 8 hours ( removal, mass, cemetery )

confession - 3 hours

wedding - 4 hours

Attending sick or dying - 4 hours

admin - 2 / 3 hours

you would be doing a 35 - 40 hour week but you’d be working every day to some degree.

if you let them marry, you’ll get more priests..

My old RE teacher at school was a trainee priest but dropped out. He was an unusual man who played for the Leeds United youth team in the 1960s.