I often hear many criticisms of the priests around me. Father P talks too long, Fr. M is too boring, Fr. C is snobbish, Fr. L has too thick an accent, Fr. N doesn't like people, Fr. A drives too expensive of a car, and the list could go on and on.
It shouldn't be about a preferred style or personality. There will always be those who are preferred by particular people, but if a person is choosing a parish or, even worse, leaving the Church because of a priest's style there is a problem. I'm not talking about abuses here, but ordinary differences between individuals.
"But.....I need to go where I am fed" you say. You are fed at every parish. You recieve the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into your body and you become one with Him. What more do you want? Sure, it would be great if every priest gave 3 minute homilies in which they preached like Bishop Sheen after Mass they each lived like St. Francis of Assisi, had the linguistic abilities of the apostles at Pentecost, and had the personalities of Fr. O'Malley in "Going My Way".
The truth is, that just as I wrote in Part 1, they have the same faults as the rest of us. They get tired, frustrated, and lost for words. They might be shy, outgoing, quiet, loud, and any number of personality traits. If any of those are cause to make you want to leave your parish or the Church you need to reevaluate why you are there in the first place.
Christ is the point!
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