In a recent report during Men’s Mental Health Week, The Irish Catholic newspaper quoted a parish priest who said: “Priests are not immune to mental health struggles.” Priests are not immune to mental health struggles, PP says during Men’s Mental Health Week – The Irish Catholic
Fr Michael Toomey, of St Carlo Acutis Parish Pastoral Area in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, said in a homily:
Over the past number of years here in Ireland and around the world, and as recently as earlier this year in our own area, priests have died by suicide… There is a tendency to place priests on a pedestal [*this was surely the case prior to 1990, but not currently], expecting them to always be strong, joyful, and immune to the struggles of life. But priests are not superhuman; they are men with emotions, challenges, and vulnerabilities, just like everyone else. They carry their own wounds while still attending to the wounded…Sadly, when I was 13, a very dear priest who encouraged me to be an altar server took his own life, so from a young age I have been deeply troubled and bereaved by this. Personally, the tragic news of the death of a priest is for me a sobering reminder that priests…face the complexities of… human struggles.”(*Square brackets above inserted by this writer.)
But it’s not only in Ireland where this is happening. Reports from France, Italy, and Brazil are also relatively high on the suicide list of clerics taking their lives. As reports of fellow priests and bishops point out, the news says stress and loneliness strike clerics equally, sometimes due to the exhaustion and the sensation of inadequacy.
The claims that the problem is further exacerbated, as priests often have several parishes to administer, without living in any of them. In my opinion when observing comments on the theological grapevine or researching stuff about Christian clergy, there are various reasons why there is a rise in priests committing suicide in Ireland and beyond.
But consider this: Secular anti-Catholicism is currently the ruling ideology in the Republic of Ireland and in some other countries, and Ireland is the world’s most ‘liberal’, secular country, particularly in urban/suburban areas populated by the middle-class bourgeoise, the majority of whom are theologically challenged. Same with a lot of movers and shakers in academia, TV/broadcast/print Press, entertainment industry and politics.
And it’s not much different in Northern Ireland/UK: Carrying Bibles in hospitals could be illegal under pro-abortion law, Northern Ireland police say – LifeSite; EXCLUSIVE: Catholic bishops respond to Amnesty International including them on ‘anti-rights’ list – LifeSite
Ireland is also a province of the EU, which is no friend of the Catholic Church. They depict the Church as an oppressive institution that mentally and sexually abused Irish children and “oppressed women”, as reported by the State-sponsored stenographer-journalists in the mainstream media. Such scandals cannot be the Church’s fault, as the Church is the Magisterium, but there is no doubt that many devious priests (infiltrators) were responsible for such crimes.
There are many theories regarding a rise in these suicides, ranging from psychological, neurological, existential, sociological and being under the influence of certain drugs, like LSD or cocaine. But also, consider this other possible factor: Suicidal ideation amongst priests could possibly be linked, amongst other things, to theological illiteracy. Sophisticated theologians exist but they are not the norm.
A bad command of theology could potentially result in a deformed mind and disordered soul.I’ve witnessed this at Mass while watching priests giving what I would regard as theologically heretical homilies, either wittingly or unwittingly.
Some homilies are like Ladybird ‘Fun with Dick and Jane’ stories, or one infused with Third World Liberation Theology with a pinch of Climate Change thrown in for good measure. A priest with this mentality is bound to have a disordered soul, thus potentially prone to existential angst, or worse, suicidal thoughts. I am not suggesting all priests are like that, and those who commit suicide might not be in the right minds (pray for these poor souls and the souls of lay-people who take their own lives).
However, if a cleric understands that we live in a fallen world punctuated by joy and mentally painful moments, he will join Jesus on a lesser Golgotha, but if he doesn’t understand that, then how can he cope in this crazy world if he’s having a bad period in his life? It seems, amongst other negative factors, like the mental condition of these priests might be synonymous of losing one’s Faith due to theological misunderstandings and confusion.
Loss of the Faith in a priest was highlighted quite well in the 1973 movie The Exorcist, a story about a possessed girl. The main character is Fr Damien Karras, a thirtysomething depressed Jesuit psychiatrist. After visiting his elderly mother, who lives alone in New York City’s skid row.
Deeply concerned about his mother, Fr Karras enters a campus college bar full of students in Georgetown University, a hotbed for Jesuitical theology (I rest my case!). Walking away from the bar with two beers, Karras sits at a table in a dark partitioned area and puts one beer in front of the president of the university, Fr Tom, an elderly man.
Int. College Campus Bar. Night.
Fr KARRAS:
“It’s my mother Tom. She’s alone, I never should have left her. At least in New York, I’d be nearer, I’d be closer.“
Fr TOM:
“Could see about a transfer Damien.“
Fr KARRAS:
“I need reassignment, Tom, I want out of this job. It’s wrong, it’s no good.“
Fr TOM:
“You’re the best we’ve got.“
Fr KARRAS:
“Am I really? It’s more than psychiatry and you know that, Tom; some of their problems come down to faith, their vocation, the meaning of their lives and I can’t cut it anymore. I need out, I’m unfit. I think I’ve lost my faith, Tom.“
Karras aside, one wonders if mental health issues are due to some priests being secretly agnostic? Or could it be caused by anti-Christian lustful impulses, either private or physically acted upon, resulting in overwhelming guilt?
Aside from the above, remember during the Covid lockdowns when many churches where closed? And the few churches that were open and celebrated Mass, many priests wore hazmat suits, visors, face masks and surgical gloves while giving Holy Communion to parishioners who received it on the hand because the priest refused to place it on the tongue.
My advice to such clerics in despair while descending into a spiritual crisis, is prayer (especially Psalm 23) and communication. God will never let you down, and if it looks like He is not answering your prayers, it is because there is a reason for it and it will be revealed in the future. I also recommend a great moral short story by Tolstoy: God Sees the Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy | Full Text
But back to Irish priests: For over 1,500 years, Catholicism was Ireland’s dominant religion and the country’s moral framework that shaped Irish education, politics, law, and family life. But the moral shift began slowly in 1965 at the end of Vatican II and the beginning of the Sexual Revolution when TVs in Ireland went mainstream in almost every household.
The reverberations of this paradigm shift spread across the West, and progressed rapidly in the mid-1990s, by way of social engineering in the entertainment industry, as well as state institutions, especially schools and universities.
Finally, if I may put on my humble lay-theologian hat, my advice to bishops and teachers of theology in Ireland and beyond, is to say the following, by way of a monologue, when advising young men entering the seminary to join the priesthood:
[Starting with a prayer] Being a Catholic priest in 21st century Woke West, is being in a very lonely place. This vocation may be the most challenging thing that you will experience in your entire life, especially in a country that loathes and mocks Christianity. The priesthood is one of the hardest job (vocation) in the world, both spiritually and physically. There is also the irrational belief that you need to save all your parishioners and fix every situation in the parish, thus expressing feelings of profound pressure to be perfect. This is enough to depress any normal person, who prefer the Church of Nice. But the Church is not a kumbaya country club or community centre; it is a spiritual rehab clinic for sinners and the broken-hearted. Never doubt this, and, in times of doubt about your Faith, then doubt the doubt which should quickly dissolve after saying The Lord’s Prayer. Finally, in times of mental struggles, talk to your fellow priest and chaplain and pray to the Holy Spirit to help you in your hour of need. Let us finish now with the Lord’s Prayer.” [Recite prayer].