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Priests lay their hands on the ordinands during a Catholic rite of ordination... Priesterweihe in Schwyz. By Matthias Ulrich. Wikimedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license. You are free: to share ...
By Jonah McKeown, National Catholic Register, December 3, 2025
Jonah McKeown is a Register staff writer. He previously was a staff writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer. He is based in St. Louis.
Priestly fraternity and lay support are of vital importance. How can we do better?
When Toby — not his real name — approached the altar during his ordination Mass roughly a decade ago, he was understandably nervous — perhaps much more so than the average ordinand.
Despite growing up Catholic, loving his faith, and enjoying constant encouragement throughout his seminary experience, Toby had nevertheless been harboring serious doubts about whether he could truly say “Yes” to priesthood. But he says expectations from family, supporters and the seminary itself created a situation where he felt it impossible to step back from ordination.
Though he immediately felt deeply insecure in the priesthood, Toby, on the advice of an older priest, decided to take his best swing at parish ministry.
“By Christmas, I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown,” Toby recalled. …
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