im constantly surrounded by catholics, and the concepts of priests annoys me.
Just because they attended semenary and gave up sensuality suddenly theyre holier than us? As you can probably tell i am protestant but have no specific denomination. Dont get me wrong though, i know a few really pious, righteous priests who serve humanity and God well. But why do i need a priest to tell me i am forgiven or tell me what i should think about God? A church leader should be an ordinary member of the community, not some ivory tower, virgin, unmarried, hollier than thou old cracker. No disrespect to catholics, or priests but that is what i believe.

You don't need a priest to say you've been forgiven, that's between you and God personaly. But priest serve as a way to educate those un knowledgable of God so that they can be saved. If there wasn't anyone in churches explaining God's good book.......then no one would know God's word unless they took the time to read the book themselves (which they should do anyway).

In Catholicism, the Priest acts as a mediator between you and God, much like Old Testament times when the Levites would do such (though historically, the rationale behind starting confessionals had nothing to do with this and was actually a way to provide the church with leverage over the population - they knew all the dirt on everybody, so they had the power).

In other forms of Protestantism however, it is the belief that Jesus' death on the cross, and the subsequent tearing of the veil in the temple means that we no longer need that mediator. In these churches, the Priest (though normally called "minister" or "pastor" instead) leads that church, gives out advice to those who ask, preach, teach and much more. The Priest is not responsible for forgiving the sins of others, as only God is capable of that.

Hope this helps.

Regards, PA

http://www.ulc.org/

there ya go. become a preist yourself and tell them to cram it.

Priests, both historically and modernally, are supposed emissaries of the Gods, God, kami, or spirits - whatever supernatural forces the community is supplicating themselves to. They are believed to have a kind of magic under their control, whether it is foretelling the future, healing sicknesses, or exorcising demons (the best example is the Catholic Exorcism Ritual, which is really just a type of spell).

Why do you ask two dogs? We priests are special because we have a special way with boys.

which is why my son hasn't been baptised lol