What percentage of people who become Catholic priests are secretly hoping to become Pope?

[Boojatta]

[valerief]

1. All of 'em, of course, although 45% are hoping for a new SuperPope designation. nt

[saltpoint]

2. Probably not many. There is a lot of study involved to get even as far

as a local priest, a lot of mind work and soul-searching, a long alignment of self with the tenets of the New Testament.

I wonder if many priest aspirants spend a lot of time wondering if they can manage the academics involved, the reading, the understanding, and of course the spiritual alignment.

All the while they are accelerating their studies the world must seem to become more and more complex and unmanageable.

I think some of them, especially the ones who are not afraid of a loner, more arduous path toward the priesthood, might find in that journey an opportunty to dissolve the Self into the larger spiritual landscape. If not right at first, then possibly a bit down the road into their preparations and studies.

Rome and red shoes might flash across their minds but I think their studies focus them more locally, and more personally.

[Dorian Gray]

3. I would guess almost none of them

except a select few with huge ambition. (Look at the Cardinal College.)

[CatholicEdHead]

4. And deep connections

You also have to be willing to play the party line games to advance. Considering there has yet to be an American Pope yet many from many countries also have to work against history. If you are born Italian you have an advantage.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Too bad Bush wasn't a Catholic and hadn't become a priest.

[MineralMan]

6. Another silly question. Most, if not almost all, have no such hopes.

Why would they hope for such an unlikely thing?

[Boojatta]

7. Why would anyone who buys a lottery ticket hope to win the jackpot?