are closet Atheists. Their church gig is just show business and a way to make a living. I have known several former Catholic priests who admitted it to me. One of them called the Pope the #1 Atheist on the planet.

You must travel in some interesting circles to have known several former catholic priests!

I agree with you. I'd bet many clerics regard it as a career ("calling" strikes me as a term of art) requiring little more than an occasional magic show and counseling work not requiring an MSW.

To see pope Frank come out--now that would rock a lot of worlds!

You just may not know it. Many find out it is not the life for them. Some just do it to get an education. While California governor Jerry Brown was never ordained as a priest, he did attend a Jesuit seminary as a young man. When they enter private life, they tend to not talk about it. The ones I have known only spoke about it when they find out I went to Catholic schools and was an altar boy, and am now an Atheist. The same goes for nuns. There are more former nuns than you think also. I've never met a former nun who was an Atheist, though.

I should clarify that the priest that said the Pope was an Atheist was referring to John Paul II at the time.

Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and the rest was history sorry couldn't help it

eom

I've always believed that Clergy must be really good actors or on some
potent drugs to live such lies

that he has to make the comment that he is still the same person that he was before. It is like he expects people to believe that overnight he has turned into the devil. Well, maybe they do.

I expect that he will lose the job of writing that column now.

As if he couldn't possibly be the good person he was before he stopped believing. It happens a lot I'm sure.
For me, an old client of mine (had been doing their accounts and taxes for many years) found out I was an atheist and were gob smacked that I was a decent moral person (I would ask for proof on their deductions) ha! They were fundys and just could never imagine in a million years that I could possibly be an atheist and even raise an atheist child with a moral compass. We still run into each other and they stayed with me as my clients for years after. This was when I lived in a red county and all my clients were very religious. Shocking.

It happens all the time. This is why I believe in atheists who can coming out to people that they know, because the more atheists that people realize they know and like, the more we will be accepted.

At least, that is my hope.