They know this, the bishop knows it, but it isn t confronted it s just there. You re required to cooperate with people you fundamentally disagree with, and there s no light at the end of the tunnel. There are all kinds of tensions and conflicts, but the situation must be treated with a smile as if it didn t exist. It s an awful strain to pretend there isn t an elephant in the living room when there is. This situation of conflict, between the solidarity required to be good priests and the situation of institutionalized dissent now existing in the Church, worries a lot of seminarians.
Clerical work isn t like other professional work where conflict is part of the game.
It s supposed to be like being on a team people working together for the same objectives. But that s just not the way it is any more. It s like players on the same football team trying to play by different game plans. And that makes becoming a priest a lot less attractive than it used to be. The priest-theologian suggests that the phenomenon of disunity helps explain why prospective seminary candidates today often are careful to shop around for theologically and spiritually congenial dioceses and religious institutes.